Yeah, I'm A Girl (But I'm Also A Gem)
by AnbarElectrum
Summary: Weiss is having a perfectly adequate day until she meets one Ruby Rose Quartz, an impossible Gem/human hybrid. Then they get kidnapped by a giant bird. At this point Weiss is having a terrible day. But it's okay, because Ruby's crazy Gem family is on hand to help. At this point Weiss doesn't know what kind of day she's having. She'll have to get used to that.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Has anyone done this yet? I feel like the answer is probably 'yes', at least somewhere on the Internet. I meant to check before I got to writing, but then I didn't check and I'd already finished writing and there isn't anything **_**exactly _like this on _this _site. _**_**So.**_

_**This is specifically a fusion fic. Y'know, the kind of crossover where characters from one universe are jammed into the roles of characters in the other universe—in this case, **_**RWBY** _**characters in lieu of **_**Steven Universe** _**characters on a version of Remnant that was Pink Diamond's first and last colony. I've had to bend the rules of both universes **__**_**a little to make them play nice together **_(Gems with masculine appearances being a thing I had to make happen if I didn't want to Rule 63 a few characters, for example), but I'm actually quite happy with the result! **__**There shouldn't be much in the way of spoilers for either show, except indirectly as regards some of the logic behind casting.**_

_**This chapter is inspired partly by Bubble Buddies (SU) and select segments of the Initiation arc from **_**RWBY** _**Vol. 1.**_

* * *

**If You Give a Weiss a Cookie**

Once upon a time, a dazzling Rose Quartz so deep in colour she was nearly red led a rebellion against the Great Diamond Authority.

Her banner was an unpopular one at first: the preservation of organic life on this newly-settled colony world, so unimportant to most Diamonds that it lacked even a name. But there was one Diamond to whom this world was very important: Pink Diamond, who'd been given this planet as her first colony by the eldest of her siblings. Gems began to realise that by challenging Pink Diamond, Rose Quartz was not simply defending the lives of the curious Gem-shaped creatures who called this planet home, nor the strange, soft environment in which they dwelled. She was fighting to topple the great Hierarchy of Gems, the almighty caste system which bound each type of Gem to their place and their role. And this concept, dangerous and unprecedented though it was, held a lustre that to some was more brilliantly alluring than any Diamond.

These rebel Gems dared more than to step outside their appointed places in life, like the masterless Pearl that followed Rose Quartz so faithfully and even fought at her side. Some of them went so far as to Fuse with Gems outside their Caste, like the fearsome Garnet who served as one of Rose Quartz's most skilled generals. Many even gave themselves individual names as the humans did, as hushed urban legend claimed some high-ranking Gems once had in the distant past.

The war was a brutal one, and by far the longest in Homeworld's history. Rebellions had occurred before, but until Rose Quartz, none had ever come so close to succeeding. The war came to a head with the death of Pink Diamond, and came to a close at the hands of her three elders. Homeworld recalled its Gems and marked down the sorry remnant of a world as a failure, a loss that could be made up in time, but the Great Diamond Authority—the siblings of shattered Pink Diamond—would never forget what happened on the garden world's blasted soil.

Still, their gaze turned away, and it was enough. Enough for Remnant's natives to flourish and prosper, enough for time to dull the fear and pain of coming so close to extinction, and enough for the surviving rebel Gems to emerge from their stronghold, devastated, mourning, but alive.

In time, Rose Quartz and her Pearl and Garnet confidants would find an abandoned Kindergarten with a single Quartz soldier who had emerged confused and alone. They took her into the fold, saying nothing of the traits that would mark her as defective in Homeworld's eyes. The Gems were weary of war and mindful of the one too young to have known it, and they left their stronghold behind in favour of making a pleasant home for themselves on a little island called Patch, where the four of them watched the great city of Vale rise inch by steady inch until a sprawling seaside city dominated the coast across the channel. And there they live still, mostly happily and hopefully ever after.

Though it's true Rose Quartz no longer _quite_ looks the part...

* * *

"I just wanted to give you your hair thingy back!" the weird girl bawled, clinging tight to the side of the giant black bird that had just scooped them up.

"I'm starting to think I'd rather you have kept it!" Weiss shrieked, also clutching on for dear life. "What the heck is this thing and why does it want you so bad?!"

"It's a Gem monster and I don't know!" the other girl shouted back, nearly sobbing the last few words. "Look—what's your name?"

"Seriously?!"

"I'm Ruby! Ruby Rose Quartz! What's your name!?"

Weiss stared at her, eyes wild with fear and incredulity.

"Weiss!" was her wailed reply. "I am _Weiss Schnee_ and this isn't supposed to _ever_ happen to me!"

"It's very nice to meet you, Weiss! I'm really sorry about this and I just need to know if you trust me!"

"_What?"_

"Do you trust me?!"

"_No!"_ Weiss squealed. "Why would I trust you?"

"Okay, well, I'm really going to need you to trust me if we're gonna get out of this, so you've got ten seconds to change your mind and let go when I tell you to! Ten! Nine! Eight!"

"Oh gods," Weiss breathed. She took a peek at the surface below and immediately regretted it. She'd been in lower-flying helicopters. "Oh _gods."_

"Seven! Six!"

It occurred to Weiss that she was about to die.

"Five! Four!"

It further occurred to Weiss that since she was about to die, she really had nothing to lose by doing as Ruby said—

"Three! Two! One _jumpjumpjump!"_

—and letting go.

"_AAAAAAAAAAAH!"_

Weiss screamed as she fell through the air in a graceless flailing of limbs. An exhilarated whoop rushed past her ears from below, and fury rolled in to fill every void left around her terror. What's more, Ruby had foolishly given Weiss the perfect weapon for the occasion: her full name.

"_RUBY ROSE QUARTZ, YOU SELFISH MANIAC!" _she bellowed into the wind.

But then there were arms wrapped around her waist and a bubble of transparent rosy red energy blossomed into being around her, tinting the world into sunset hues and blocking out the harsh, salt-scented wind.

"Brace yourself against one of the sides if you can!" Ruby told her, letting go. "I'm going to see if I can slow us down."

"How?" Weiss demanded, and immediately she wanted to kick herself. _How_ was the girl who'd just pulled a magic barrier out of _nowhere_ going to put the brakes on their fall? Why was she even _asking_ these questions?

Ruby grinned. "I'm going to go almost as fast the other way, duh."

She jumped, and—dissolved into flower petals.

"Oh," Weiss said, laughing hysterically. "Of course."

The petals hit the top of the bubble, hard, and Weiss became aware of a thrumming through the shield's walls, like a heavy vibration, or like—well, like Ruby running repeatedly into the bubble's upper boundary at high speeds in a bizarre, masochistic vertical tug-of-war with gravity. The worst (best?) part was that it was actually working. Weiss just didn't know if it would be enough. She saw an empty stretch of beach below them, good, but everything was getting bigger and bigger by the second—the waves of the sea, the buildings of Vale, and she didn't actually know what terminal velocity was or how to even begin calculating their rapidly-decreasing altitude while the fall was in progress but a sickening jolt in her stomach told her that this was going to be close.

"We're still going to crash!" she hollered, unable to tear her horrified gaze away from the sand speeding towards her between her feet. She squeezed her eyes shut instead, because surely it was better not to see your impeding doom. Or was it? Should she open her eyes again? Oh gods—!

And then they crashed, and her eyes flew open without her conscious intent as she slammed into the concave floor. Sand fountained around the bubble, and Weiss felt her own little bubble of hysterical laughter. "Of course! Sand! The sand cushioned some of the—"

She squeaked—it was probably the start of a scream she didn't have the breath to finish—as Ruby fell heavily onto her back with an "Oof!" of forced-out air.

"—impact," Weiss groaned. "Ugh, get off me!"

Before Ruby had a chance to comply, the tip of a sharp, curved blade dug into the top of the bubble.

_Pop!_

The energy exploded outwards, and Weiss groaned even louder as she realised she was now laying directly on the sand in her expensive all-white clothes. Ugh, some of it was going down the front of her sundress...!

A weird sound caught her attention, and she heard Ruby swear under her breath and scramble off of her. It was like a rhythmic sort of...slapping...

Weiss braced her hands against the beach and pushed herself onto her knees, wincing in pain, to see two rather _colourful_ individuals standing around her and Ruby's personal impact crater. One of them, a woman with long, wild blond hair and violet eyes, was smirking down at them and slowly clapping.

Weiss felt herself flush.

"Nice one, Rubes," the blond woman—no, _teenager_, with _that_ posture, in _those_ clothes—snickered, finally lowering her hands. Her...pale _yellow_ hands. Actual yellow, at least on the fingers and. Brown gloves covered the palms. And—yes, what Weiss had taken for blond was in fact a bright golden-yellow. "Way better than that lame-ass slingshot ride at the amusement park, right?"

"_Yaaaaaaang,"_ Ruby whined. She barely looked up at the yellow girl to do it, busy tipping trace amounts of sand out of the rolled-up cuffs of her jean shorts.

The man beside Yang, all greys and blacks (even his skin was a washed-out grey), lowered the massive scythe leaning against his shoulder and knelt down, gripping the tool's haft a little below the blade and letting the rest of the handle hang down into the shallow crater.

"Wait," Weiss realised, once she'd finished processing the existence of the scythe. "You're the one who burst our bubble, aren't you?!"

Yang immediately burst out laughing, loud, raucous cackles of sheer glee, and Weiss's flush deepened.

"Stop that!" she demanded, stamping her foot. Her heeled sandal sunk into the sand, and Yang laughed even harder. Even the man with the scythe looked like he might be suppressing a snicker, and when Weiss looked to Ruby the girl was covering her mouth and desperately trying not to meet her eyes.

"Oh, I see how it is," Weiss grumbled, crossing her arms. Never mind that she was sure at least two of these people were _millennia_ old, because any Schnee worth her name knew a Gem when she saw one. They still couldn't muster the maturity to understand the hell she'd just been put through. Ruby, at least, she could excuse. Probably. The name and the powers were suspicious, but otherwise she seemed perfectly human, the only unusual bit of colour on her the dark red at the ends of her hair—just as easily explained by an ombre dye job as any sort of supernatural or extraterrestrial origin. Still. _Superpowers._

"C'mon, Weiss," Ruby said through a wide smile, grabbing hold of the scythe handle with one hand and holding the other out to Weiss. "It's okay to laugh when you've almost died," and wow, that was quite a sentence for someone her own age _at most_ to throw out that casually_. _"We're not trying to make fun of you."

"I am!"

"_Yang!"_ Ruby snapped, glaring viciously at the Gem woman, who had her right hand planted cockily on her hip, something glinting on the outside of her forearm. "Ugh. I promise, they're not so bad. Besides, it beats trying to climb your way out of here, right?"

Weiss narrowed her eyes, unconvinced, but she laid her hand in Ruby's anyway.

"Nice thought, short stuff, but one at a time," the man said.

"I know!" Ruby called up. "Okay, put your hands like this..." She directed Weiss to essentially wrap herself around the scythe handle. "Okay, Qrow!"

Weiss felt herself being hauled upwards, and in seconds she was over the edge of the sand pit. She fancied the air tasted freer up here.

"Thank you," she said to the Gem man—_Crow? Really?_—because it seemed polite and manners were about the only thing she had left. Even if everyone else was going to be rude and it was really tempting to respond in kind.

"Yep," was Qrow's less-than-inspired reply; he barely looked at her (just long enough for her to see the eerie red of his eyes) before he jerked a thumb over his shoulder and knelt back down, lowering the scythe handle for Ruby. The short red cape over his shoulders shifted as he did so, giving Weiss a brief glimpse of a smooth dark grey cabochon set between his shoulder blades, visible thanks to a clearly-intentional cutout in the back of his shirt.

A little affronted at his dismissal, it took Weiss a moment to follow his gesture. She let her eyes pass right over Yang, who pulled an exaggerated face in reply (reinforcing Weiss's opinion that if anyone deserved to be ignored, it was her) and turned to see a third Gem, also masculine in appearance, standing a few feet back from the edge of the sand pit, green-tinted hands folded atop the silver handle of a cane. He smiled pleasantly at her, one of those hands lifting to beckon her closer.

"Let's have a look at you," he said, his voice modulated in a fashion Weiss recognised; it was somewhere between the even, soothing speaking tones of her tutors and the aristocratic inflection those same tutors had tried to impress upon her. "You'll have to forgive my companions; they forget, sometimes, how fragile humans are compared to ourselves."

"I'm pretty sure I'm alright," Weiss said as she approached, uncertain and wary. His manner was genial enough and his silvery hair gave an impression of age, but dear gods he was tall, taller and broader both than Qrow had been, and okay so a Schnee knew a Gem when she saw one but that didn't mean the Schnee _heiress_ had ever actually _interacted_ with one before today. "Actually," she added, "I think Ruby falling on me did more damage than me falling out of the sky in the first place."

The tall Gem chuckled. "Indeed. You do seem to be able to move about just fine, and I don't see any wounds. Still, I'd suggest you let a doctor take a look at you. Not all damage can be so easily seen." He pitched his voice louder, looking over Weiss's shoulder. "And how _did_ the two of you come to be _falling out of the sky in the first place_, if I may ask, young Rose?"

"It wasn't my fault!" Ruby objected, looking hurt as she stepped level with Weiss, Qrow and Yang trailing behind her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out Weiss's favourite scrunchie. "I was just trying to give this back to Weiss when this huge Gem monster shaped like a bird swooped down on us! We were down that way," she pointed back towards Patch, "by the lighthouse near the ferry port."

"So, lemme get this straight." Qrow's rough voice broke in, and he looked down at Ruby with a raised eyebrow and the edge of a wry smile. "A giant bird comes down at you, and somehow you wind up on its back hundreds of feet in the air."

Ruby blushed. "I—I figured it wouldn't be able to attack us if we were on its back."

"I mean, she's right," Yang said, grinning. "Way to go, Ruby!"

"Points for ingenuity, I suppose," mused the third Gem.

Qrow rolled his eyes. "Unbelievable."

"Ah, and there's our feathered nemesis now," the green Gem said, looking up at the sky with a placid smile. The rest of them wheeled around, Qrow readjusting his grip on his scythe while Yang clenched her fists, strange metal bracers appearing on her wrists and extending to cover the backs of her hands. "Ruby, please escort your young friend away from the battlefield. She's been through quite enough today."

_She has, _Weiss thought dazedly, watching as the giant bird monster dove in for the kill. Again. _She really has._

"No! I want to help!" Ruby insisted. "You guys have been letting me come on missions but you still try to keep me away from the fighting! Am I one of you or not?!"

"Ruby—"

"Ozpin!"

"Ruby Rose Quartz." Ozpin didn't raise his voice, but his tone was stern layered on grim layered on disappointed, and Ruby quailed immediately, chin tucking into her red hoodie. "One of us needs to see the young lady here to safety. You already know her, and you are still in training. This is the part of the mission you are best suited for, and you are _better_ suited for it than the rest of us."

Weiss had to bow to the master. Clearly, she still had much to learn about the invocation of full names. Ruby had gone from defiantly staring Ozpin down to watching her own shoe scuff at the sand.

"Ruby, take the girl and go!" Qrow ordered. "Oz, get over here!"

Ruby's head shot up, and Ozpin smiled wryly, pushing tinted spectacles higher up his nose. "Duty calls." He laid a hand on Ruby's shoulder briefly as he brushed past her; his other hand was twirling his cane up into a singlestick grip. The girl's jaw set.

"Right! C'mon, Weiss, let's get out of here!"

For the second time that day, Weiss found herself hand-in-hand with Ruby Rose Quartz. She was also once again wondering if she was about to die, but she'd decided to stop counting the number of times that happened. It was starting to dawn on her that running and/or fighting for her life was just a hazard of being in Ruby's presence.

"Where are we going?" Weiss demanded breathlessly as they ran.

She heard what sounded like gunshots behind her, an ungodly loud avian screech of pain or anger or both, and a sound like metal scraping glass.

"To the best bakery in town!" Ruby declared, grinning at her. "Where else do you run in a crisis?"

Weiss risked a glance over her shoulder and beheld video-game levels of physics-defying combat: Qrow and his scythe spinning into a lethal whirlwind of motion targeting any limb he could reach. Yang vaulting from point to point atop the monster and pummelling it like a speed bag every time she got the leverage, unleashing shotgun blasts from her gauntlets as she moved. Ozpin wielding his cane like a club to land a pair of heavy blows to one wing before leaping back into something like a fencer's stance and lunging forward for a series of precise, impossibly-swift thrusts. She looked back at the completely unfazed Ruby.

"You're—" she had to breathe again—"completely insane!"

"Don't be mean!" Ruby chastised her. "Look, I can get us there super-quick, too!"

Grunting with effort but barely breaking stride, Ruby scooped her up bridal-style and then there were petals everywhere and wind rushing past Weiss's face—

And then she was back on her feet, staring up at a quaint little bakery sign ("Juniper Bake House & Patisserie", it read in curly script) while Ruby waved through the window at the redhead behind the counter, who smiled with the brilliance of a professional model and waved back.

"Someone'll call us when the monster's bubbled," Ruby assured her, as if those words in that order were supposed to mean anything to a normal person. "C'mon, this place has the greatest cookies and cupcakes you will ever eat. Ever."

She opened the door for Weiss, making the shop bell chime, and gestured for the heiress to precede her inside.

At least, Weiss reflected, casting a quick glance down at herself as she stepped into the air-conditioning, Ruby's run had stripped most of the sand off of her. She looked presentable, even if there was a bit of chafing under the sundress. She'd just have to bear it for now.

"Hello again, Ruby!" The girl behind the counter nearly sang her greeting, her brilliant green eyes seeming to glow with happiness. Now that Weiss was closer, she estimated they were about the same age; the redhead _might_ have been a year or so her elder, probably working here part-time and after school. There was an odd maturity about her that made it hard to say. "What will it be for you today? We still have some strawberry cheese danishes!"

"Ooh!" Ruby dashed up to the pastry case in a whirl of petals; the shopkeeper was utterly unperturbed by this, and for a brief moment Weiss was reminded of what envy felt like before she viciously quashed the emotion. "I'll definitely take one of those! D'you still have any pan o' shock-a-lots?"

The other girl winced a little, which mostly manifested as a twitch of an eye while her smile remained. Weiss bypassed wincing and went straight to cringing.

"What did the _Langue Méridienne_ ever do to you?" she demanded. Ruby looked over her shoulder at the older girl, eyes wide.

"Huh?"

"It's _pain au chocolat_, or _pain_s _au chocolat," _she pointedly hissed the 's' on 'pains', slurring it into the 'au', "and they're on the bottom shelf." Weiss pointed without looking, determined to make sure Ruby understood the gravity of her crime against grammar by fixing her with her most severe scowl.

"Aha! Thanks." Ruby's smile had definitely wilted a little, but she seemed equally determined not to lose her cheer: a surprisingly immovable object in the face of the unstoppable force which Weiss liked to think of herself as. "Uh, I'll take one of those home—or maybe opera cake...? Nah, the pastry's good. So that, a danish, and whatever Weiss wants. Oh! Weiss, this is Pyrrha. Pyrrha, this is Weiss! We just escaped a giant bird attack together."

"Oh my goodness! That's certainly one way to bond," Pyrrha's initial wide-eyed surprise quickly gave way to a gentle chuckle; Weiss fought hard to keep her jaw from dropping. "Hello, Weiss. It's very nice to meet you!"

Weiss honestly wasn't sure if she wanted to shake Pyrrha by the shoulders and demand to know why she was acting as if this was normal, or fall on her knees and plead with this idol of sanguinity to impart her wisdom.

"...Yyyyyyeah. It's..." _Get it together._ She cleared her throat and inclined her head. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Hm." Tilting her head (which caused the light to glint brightly off the metal of her headband), Pyrrha tapped near the corner of her lips, looking thoughtful. "You look like a macaron girl. Am I close?"

_That depends,_ Weiss bit back, stepping closer to the counter so that she could look into the case for herself. Right on top sat two trays of macaron laid sideways, one tray deep pink, one creamy white with faint speckles. She hummed, narrowing her eyes critically. The tops looked smooth, the feet were even and ruffled, and the filling was neat and regular.

"Yes," she agreed, nodding and looking up at Pyrrha again. "What flavours do you have?

"It varies. Today we have vanilla and raspberry."

_Two of each,_ she nearly asked, but imagined her father's disapproving look and mentally quailed. "One of each, please."

"Ooh yeah, they're really good," Ruby chimed in. "The chocolate ones are like crumbly Oreos. Kind of expensive for being so teeny, though."

Weiss's eyes squeezed shut. "You are an absolute _rube."_

"Yup, that's me!" She beamed, cocking her head and pointing at herself with both hands. "Rube-y!

From beneath the counter, amongst the rustle of wax paper as Pyrrha rummaged for bags and pastry wraps, Weiss could swear she heard a snort and a smothered laugh.

"Why am I even here?" Weiss wondered aloud, staring up at the ceiling.

"For macarons," Ruby said matter-of-factly, shaping the 'r' wrong and landing too hard on the 'n'. But she didn't voice the 's', and the fact that she'd at least tried to mimic the correct pronunciation made Weiss feel better, somehow.

"I meant more like how did I get here."

"I carried you," Ruby answered in the same tone as before.

"_Cosmically_, Ruby. A tiny girl—"

"Hey!"

"—wearing a hoodie in the middle of summer used _super-speed_ to _carry me_ to a _bakery_ after I _fell from the sky."_

"Well where else is an angel gonna fall from?"

Weiss jumped at the sudden, masculine voice; so did Pyrrha, which resulted in a loud thump and a yelp of startlement and pain as the top of her head collided with the underside of the counter.

The blond boy who'd been leaning against the doorway from the kitchen, practically _leering_ at Weiss, gave a start of his own, wide blue eyes darting down to his presumed coworker.

"Oh my gosh, Pyrrha, are you okay?" His voice was a lot less smooth and a bit higher now as he stepped forward and bent down, offering a hand to help her up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you like that, I was just—I—"

He sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck as Pyrrha straightened up, giving a rueful rub of her own to the crown of her head. "This was not my finest moment," he offered at last, flushing red."

"I-it's fine, Jaune," Pyrrha assured him, her lips twitching upward and a little waver like the hint of a laugh breaking into her voice.

Weiss edged over to Ruby, muttering "_Do not_ introduce me."

Ruby glanced between her and Jaune, but shrugged. "Heya, Jaune. How's the training regimen going?"

"Huh? O-oh, yeah. Working out like crazy, that's me. With the stretching and the lifting and...running..." He laughed nervously. "Definitely getting good at the running."

"He's really improving!" Pyrrha beamed at Jaune as she sidled past him to get at the case, bag in hand. "At least, he's getting to work earlier these days, so he must be getting faster."

Jaune flushed, looking down at the ground. "Th-thanks, Pyrrha."

"Baseball tryouts," Ruby explained, catching Weiss's blank look. "The high school team'll be looking for new players once term starts. I think that puts Jaune playing next season's games? ...I don't know much about sports."

"Me neither," Weiss found herself admitting, which caused Ruby to perk up from the slight slump she'd fallen into at her own rueful confession and smile at her.

"Alright, here's your pastries and your macarons." Pyrrha returned to the counter, pushing the bag forward and taking Ruby's _lien_. "I hope you enjoy everything!"

"I always do!" Ruby beamed as she tucked her change into a pocket and grabbed the bag. "Thanks, Pyrrha! It was great to see you too, Jaune."

"Come back soon!" Pyrrha trilled.

"See ya, Ruby. Oh—wait, I never got your—!"

Weiss breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind them, even the sound of the bell muffled by thick glass. "Dodged a bullet..."

"He's a nice guy," Ruby said, rather defensively. "Just kinda...awkward, when it comes to girls."

"Well, he certainly doesn't lack for confidence," Weiss sighed.

"Or persistence. Yang calls it the 'shotgun approach'. Hey, let's walk near the museum! There's tons of places to sit there, and the gardens are really pretty."

"I suppose," Weiss said, and then mentally kicked herself as her brain caught up with her mouth. What was she doing? She was supposed to be walking home from her piano lesson, not—bumming around town with a superpowered stranger who'd gotten her kidnapped by a bird and then bought her cookies!

Except Ruby _had_ bought her cookies, and Weiss wanted them, and it would be rude to take them and run. And while Ruby had (probably) endangered her life, she'd also (definitely) saved it, and even with the near-death experience she still had—Weiss checked her watch—almost twenty minutes before Klein would expect her home, since her lesson had ended early.

So here she was, following the weirdest person she'd ever met into one of the nicer downtown districts for a sorry-your-day-got-derailed-by-literal-monsters snack in the museum gardens.

Absently, she tugged at the front of her sundress, her mouth curling as sand crumbled off the inside of the fabric and fell against her skin. The motion caught Ruby's eye, and she frowned sympathetically.

"I'm sorry you got sand in your bra," she said, sounding genuinely remorseful, and Weiss's carefully-maintained translucent-pale skin blushed stoplight red from her head right down to her chest.

"How about we save the talking for when we get there?" she suggested pointedly, ignoring the unusually high pitch of her voice. "Great, let's do that, glad you agree."

"...Okay," Ruby mumbled, looking at her out of the corner of her eye like _Weiss_ was the weird one.

When she _did_ finally get home and Klein asked her how her day had been, Weiss was going to have to either lie or just start laughing, and laughing, and maybe crying too.

* * *

The gardens were virtually empty this time of day. Ruby and Weiss sat on a curved concrete bench beneath a gnarled old willow tree, looking out over a bed filled with columbines and bleeding-hearts and coral bells that gave way to irises and wild roses where the sun was stronger. Even the willow itself had plants strewn about its roots, from the heart-shaped leaves of wild ginger to white-petalled wood anemones to the deep green spikes of lilies-of-the-valley well past their bloom. The noise of the city was distant, background, held away by space and off-white marble walls.

"This is nice," Weiss said in some surprise. The City of Vale was relatively large, and Weiss was fairly new to it, so when Ruby had mentioned a museum she hadn't been certain which one the younger girl had been referring to. The stately marble building off to her right wasn't one that had come to mind. "I don't think I've been here before."

"It's the natural history museum." Ruby brushed some of the pastry crumbs off the front of her hoodie before taking another bite of her danish. "Mmph. The exhibits are really cool too. Dr. Oobleck takes me to see them sometimes. He's my tutor," she added before Weiss could ask. "Well, sort of; I think we're friends too. He covers history and some science and sometimes I have to write papers for him so I guess that counts for language skills."

Weiss cocked her head. "You don't go to school?"

Ruby flushed, squirming as if uncomfortable. "Uh. No. I'm thinking about maybe asking about high school but..." She sighed. "I know, it's weird."

"No, it isn't." Weiss raised the raspberry macaron from where it sat on the napkin spread across her lap, inspecting it critically. "I was instructed by private tutors for much of my life as well. I moved to Vale specifically to attend Signal Academy—it's one of the premier schools in the world for college prep, you know." She bit off half of the little sandwich cookie; the meringue crumbled into colourful shards of sugar in her mouth, lightly fruity in flavour. The jam filling was strained of seeds and had been cooked down thick, but still tasted pleasantly tart and distinctly of raspberry.

"Oh; I know Signal! It's over on Patch, right by my house! Did you just move here recently?"

"Earlier this summer. I'm from Atlas originally." Which went without saying, since she'd already introduced herself with her full name and who didn't know the Schnee family was Atlesian? Weiss wanted to smack herself.

...Except Ruby just nodded, looking interested. "I've never been to Atlas. Actually, I've never really left Vale. I know Dad has a few times, but mostly he goes over to Vacuo or across to Anima. All I know about Atlas is what I've read and what the Gems have told me about their trips." Weiss heard a scroll chime, a different tone from her own, and Ruby shifted her danish into a one handed grip as she dug the device out of her pocket. "Speaking of. Yang says they poofed the monster birdie and bubbled its core, so everything should be safe for now. I'll just...let her know what's up...and..."

Her tongue poked out between her teeth as she laboriously tapped out a message with a single thumb. "Sent! Now no one needs to worry." She smiled brightly at Weiss as she tucked her scroll away again, the expression shifting abruptly into one of surprise as her hand disappeared from view. "Huh? Oh!"

Her hand reappeared, holding Weiss's scrunchie. "I never got to return this! I'm sorry." She held it out, and Weiss took it from her. Something about her face felt odd as she did so.

...She was smiling, Weiss realised, and couldn't quite bring herself to stop.

"Thank you," she said, the words tasting strange on her tongue. She popped the rest of the macaron into her mouth, where it began to dissolve, and brushed her fingers together briskly, ridding them of finely-powdered pink meringue before she reached for her ponytail. She didn't have a hairbrush with her, so she just looped the scrunchie right over the elastic band already in place, tugging at the fabric until it flared just right, like a tiny crown perched off-centre at the back of her head.

Ruby gave her a thumbs up when she was done, saying nothing as she was busy taking another huge bite out of the danish in her other hand.

Weiss's little smile faded as she gazed out over the flowers; one hand tapped lightly at the delicate shell of the vanilla macaron, still untasted. "So. Ruby. That's...the name of a gemstone." She felt stupid for stating the obvious. She _hated_ feeling stupid; it made her want to lash out, to snap even though it had been her choice to broach the subject that way, and she could feel the dull ache in her teeth that meant she'd begun to subconsciously clench her jaw.

"Yup," Ruby agreed, oblivious. "Crystalline aluminum oxide, coloured by chromium, hardness of nine. Wonder what it is about the titanium and iron that makes for such a class difference. I mean, it's such a trace amount, y'know? They're all corundum." She sighed. "We care too much about colour."

Weiss's finger punched right through the merengue, causing the top of the cookie to cave in on itself, its buttercream filling slightly chill against her fingertip. She stared blankly at Ruby for a long moment. Ruby stared back, slowly tilting her head to one side.

"Everything okay there, Weiss?" Her voice was careful, like she was trying not to spook the older girl.

"Yes," Weiss said quickly, mechanically. "It's—yes." She looked down at her macaron and hurried to lift it, bite it in half, hide the evidence of her brief lapse in composure. "'They'," she echoed once she had swallowed. "So you're not...?"

Ruby snorted in laughter, a hideously undignified sound. "What, a Ruby? Psh, no. Dad thought it was a nice name and Mom didn't want me to feel constrained by labels. They don't make Rubies in my shade. Plus, I'm _way_ too tall." She was one of the shortest people Weiss had ever met, even considering her age, but she also clearly meant every word. "Nope, I'm human."

Evidently, Weiss's expression conveyed her skepticism perfectly. Ruby made a face and shoved the rest of her danish into it.

"Okay, _half_-human," she amended, sounding most put-upon—or maybe that was the mouthful of danish, which she swallowed before continuing. "I know what you're thinking, '_that's not a thing!',_ but it's true. See?"

She reached down, grabbing the hem of her hoodie and pulling it up over her head. She tied the arms of it around her waist and ran her fingers through her short hair until it laid mostly flat again, but Weiss wasn't paying attention to any of that. All her focus was caught by what should have been an empty stretch of skin, the flat space over the upper sternum, above cleavage and below clavicle. Instead, partially-hidden until Ruby tugged her rumpled black tank top down into place, there was the large upper face of a round-cut brilliant gem set directly in her body. In the indirect sunlight of their shaded bench, it seemed to glow subtly in a warm rose red.

Weiss realised her mouth was gaping. She snapped it closed with a click of teeth-on-teeth and immediately winced.

"Ta-dah," Ruby announced, smiling weakly. She didn't seem ashamed of the Gem; her body language was too open, too easy for that, and she hadn't hesitated to remove her hoodie. It wasn't her nature, impossible as said nature was, that had her worried. Just Weiss's potential reaction to it.

"Ruby Rose Quartz," Weiss said as she remembered. "And 'young Rose'—that's what, er, the green Gem called you. So is that your Gem half? Rose Quartz?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. This was my mother's. Now it's mine." She wouldn't meet Weiss's eyes.

"It's..."

Weiss struggled to find the right word. And the longer she did, the more Ruby's shoulders drooped, tucking inwards, her body turning subtly away. It was a familiar posture, horribly familiar, one she'd spent years training herself out of because a Schnee didn't cower and now _she_ was making someone feel small and worthless and unwanted and—

"It's pretty," Weiss blurted out, and it wasn't the word she wanted, but it wasn't _not_ the word she wanted either. More importantly, it made Ruby lift her head, made her shoulders straighten and her jean shorts go _scrape-scrape_ against the concrete bench as the incremental shifting away from Weiss was undone in a single swift movement. Ruby's eyes were wide as they met Weiss's, and Weiss had no idea what her face looked like in that moment but clearly it was at least sincere, because Ruby smiled, huffing out a breathless laugh of relief.

"I guess?" She touched her fingertips to the skin around her Gem as if to reassure herself. "I never really thought about it. It's just there, y'know? Like my nose, or my belly button, or my knees. Normal body parts, just, I've got one extra from most humans and it's also a shiny rock. That's all."

"Right," Weiss agreed inanely. "Makes sense," which was a bold-faced lie, but it didn't feel like it _should_ have been a lie. It was more like a truth she hadn't grown into yet.

"His name's Ozpin, by the way."

"Huh?"

"The green Gem. The one who calls me 'young Rose'?" Ruby prompted her. "His name's Ozpin. He's a Garnet subtype called a Demantoid. He's pretty formal; when he talks about Mom he usually calls her 'Lady Rose', so I think that's where my nickname comes from. The feminine Gem is a Quartz like me. Her name's Yang. I'm pretty sure she's Amethyst by make but she identifies as Ametrine since she's got so much Citrine colouration. The other masculine Gem is Qrow—that's Qrow with a Q, and he's a Pearl. He and my Mom were best friends. I think he's _specifically_ a Black Pearl, but his eyes are red and he mostly seems grey, not black, but actual like jewellery black pearls do look grey and I've never actually seen another Gem Pearl so...?"

Ruby shrugged expansively, as if she hadn't just casually dumped a bunch of extraterrestrial socio-ethnic politics in Weiss's lap. Somehow the fact that it all sounded like simple geology jargon made it worse.

Weiss had so many questions. About Gems, about Ruby, about Ruby's mom and how someone could _inherit_ a Gem, about monsters brazen enough to enter not just a kingdom's borders but a capitol city's limits despite the fact that every history book said that the Gems of Remnant and the humans and Faunus they'd trained in combat had culled the better part of the monster population in the great Hunts of centuries past. And somehow out of everything she wanted to ask, the question that won out—the only question that ever even _made_ it out—was "Why a Q?"

Ruby shrugged again, the gesture smaller, contained. Less 'who can truly fathom the cosmos?' and more 'but what're you gonna do?'.

Weiss nodded slowly. "Okay," she said, and popped the other half of the macaron in her mouth.

* * *

They parted ways in front of the museum's main gate. Weiss found herself glancing back over her shoulder after walking just a few paces, and thus caught Ruby doing the same thing, the facets of her Rose Quartz gem glinting in the worn light of the late-afternoon sun. Ruby grinned and waved brightly at her before turning away, short legs striding confidently west towards Patch, the mostly-empty bakery bag swinging loosely in her grip. Weiss touched a hand to her scrunchie, feeling its ruffled edge brushing her fingers, and turned back east towards home. The taste of vanilla still lingered on her tongue.

Since the day had begun, she'd lost her patience, her temper, and her sanity. Nearing day's end, she'd gained patience and even temper back along with her favourite scrunchie, plus two gourmet cookies and the scroll number of the half-alien girl who'd bought them for her. Sanity, she concluded, was probably gone for good. Time would tell if it was a fair exchange.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N:**__** Welcome back, if you are back and not here for the first time, which, hey, I don't know. Shout out to as-of-now lone reviewer **__**darkvampirekisses**__**, who may or may not have watched Steven Universe by this point…? Hopefully their curiosity did indeed turn out to be 'a good thing', if so :)**_

_**This is now the actual real chapter 2, not the previews previously shown here. No idea what any sort of update schedule will look like, but probably less than a year this time; I have a proper plot outline now, and to be fair chapter 1 was meant to work as a one-shot. In other news, this fic is now on AO3 as well. They didn't get the previews. Let's see how much they manage to predict.**_

_**This chapter, on—wow, that's a long title, why did I—anyway: **__**Missions with the Gems are all well and good, but when Ruby sees a chance to accompany her dad on a trip outside the capitol, she doesn't let it get away. Time for some father-daughter bonding, featuring terrible jokes, stories about Summer, and inevitably, a monster attack.**_

_**So basically, Ruby's ideal camping trip.**_

* * *

**Scope**

"_Pleeeeeaaaase?"_ Ruby whined, not for the first time.

"Ruby, c'mon, you know it's gonna be dangerous," Taiyang sighed, continuing to load equipment into the bed of his truck. "Qrow told me you and another girl were kidnapped by a Gem monster just last week. Why're you so fired up to throw yourself at more?"

"Weiss and I weren't _kidnapped," _Ruby scoffed. "We made a tactical decision to get up on the birdie's back and it worked perfectly."

"Well, according to Yang you two landed hard enough to leave a crater _and _you fell on top of your new friend."

"My plan is as inscrutable as it was flawless!"

Tai chuckled, shoving a collapsed one-person tent into place. "Gotcha."

"So can I come?"

"Ruby…"

"Daaaaad!" Ruby pouted. "Did Yang and Qrow tell you I've been getting better at shields, and that I can move almost as fast as Dr. Oobleck now? I can pull my own weight! Literally; I carried Weiss halfway across town and she's like a couple inches taller than me, but I don't think she eats enough so it evens out."

"If being strong and fast were all it took to win a fight, the monsters would get even more of us than they already do," Tai reminded her, a hint of severity slipping into his voice. "I know the Gems make it look easy, rosebud, but hunting monsters is dangerous work."

Taiyang was one of the last of a dying breed: the flesh-and-blood Huntsman, trained by Gems to hunt Gem monsters. Back in the day (in the Gem sense of the phrase, which could mean anything from 'about fifty years ago' to 'before the dawn of native civilisation') monsters had literally outnumbered the world population, Gem, human, and Faunus alike, and Summer Rose Quartz and her allies had trained Remnant's organic inhabitants to fight them in the name of survival. Now, though, the monsters had been almost entirely eradicated from Remnant's most populated areas. Those that still roamed the wilderness were generally considered to be the Gems' responsibility; the few remaining Huntsmen like Tai were called on when they started to encroach on settlements, or when expansion pushed human and Faunus territory out into less peaceful lands.

"But _I'm _a Gem," Ruby argued.

"You're also a human, and you're thirteen." Tai crossed his arms, seating himself on the truck's tailgate. "You're really grown up in a lot of ways, sweetie, but you're still a kid—_my _kid."

Ruby threw her arm out in the direction of the house. "The Gems let me come on missions with them! …Sometimes!"

Tai grimaced. "That's their choice. And I try not to worry too much about that because, yeah, it hurts to admit it, but three ancient immortal super-warriors have a much better chance of keeping you safe than your fleshy old dad does."

"But you don't _have _to keep me safe. I can keep _myself_ safe!" Ruby looked down at the ground. "…I just don't get to see you that much anymore," she said quietly.

"Oh, Ruby…" Tai softened. "I just don't want to see you get hurt, that's all. Sometimes things can go sideways, and I'm not sure I can look out for both of us if they do."

Ruby's face fell. "You think I'd be dead weight."

"No! No, that's not it at all, sweetie. Hey." He leaned forward, bracing his hands on his knees, so he could look her in the eyes. "It's not that I don't think you can look after yourself, I just don't know how _much _looking after yourself you'll have to do, and you're still in training."

"It should be safe to take her along."

Tai nearly fell off the tailgate, swearing; Ruby yelped, reeling back in surprise. Father and daughter both stared at Ozpin, who was leaning against the truck as casually as if he'd been there the whole time, elbow resting on the side of the bed. He sipped from a mug in his other hand as he stared right back.

"You know, I really hate it when you do that," Taiyang said weakly, breaking the silence at last.

"Do what?" Ozpin smiled cheerfully. "Don't sit on the asphalt, young Rose, you'll regret it later. Your intel says there's at most what, two, three Beta-Class monsters?" he asked Tai. "Child's play for a Huntsman of your calibre. And as you yourself pointed out, Ruby is half-human. If she truly does intend to dedicate herself to this sort of work, it would be good for her to see first-hand how a human Huntsman operates in the field."

"No offense, Oz," Taiyang replied blandly, "but I'm not comfortable taking safety advice from the guy who used to throw recruits off a cliff and make them fight their way back through monster-infested woodland before he'd agree to train them."

Ozpin nodded thoughtfully. "That's fair," he allowed, taking another sip.

"He's right, though," Ruby said, dusting the last of the asphalt residue off the backs of her legs with haphazard swipes of her hands.

"I am," Ozpin agreed.

They turned to stare at him again.

"I'll be inside," he said, lifting his arm away from the truck and tucking that hand into his pocket instead as he strode towards the porch.

"I know he's the quote-unquote 'responsible' one and I'm _pretty _sure I like him, but he is so goddamn weird," Tai said quietly, shaking his head.

"And _right_," Ruby repeated. "C'mon, Dad, it's not _safe, _but it's still a one-man mission. If you really really don't want me helping, I can hang back while you do the actual fighting, and you can just…show me the ropes! It'll be like a camping trip, but with monster slaying. And y'know, if you _do _want me to help fight, I can! Look, I've got my hunting cloak and everything!"

So saying, she struggled her hoodie over her head with rather more difficulty than usual; as she did so, folds of a different material fell out, so that once she had it off there was a rumpled red cape hanging around her shoulders, her Gemstone visible between the cowl at her throat and the neckline of her shirt.

"How were you not dying of heat with all that on?" Taiyang demanded.

"I was actually," Ruby admitted, reaching beneath her cloak to tie her hoodie around her waist. "Worth it!"

Tai's expression changed as he reached out, gently grasping the edge of the cloak. "That's your mom's, isn't it?"

Ruby looked down. "Yeah. Qrow gave it to me the first time I got to go along on a mission. _Totally _thought he'd take it back after I broke that fancy magic tower thingy…"

"Alright."

Her head jerked up. "What?"

Tai was smiling at her. "Alright," he repeated. "You can come—_if _you can be packed and ready in fifteen minutes. Lesson One: Huntsmen don't always have ready access to the warps and even if they do, there isn't always one close to where they need to go. For a Gem, that's okay, but us meat-people gotta carry supplies with us, and we don't always have a lot of time to get what we need together. Time starts now!"—and Ruby was already gone, rose petals flying in her wake. Taiyang blinked, a little surprised still by his daughter's emerging powers.

"Maybe a speed challenge wasn't the smartest move," he mused aloud. A brisk wind rustled past his face.

"Okay!"

He leapt off the tailgate at the sound of Ruby's voice from behind him, wheeling around to see her kneeling in the truck bed surrounded by three additional bags, three in red and one in mottled grey. "Got a tent," she patted the grey bag, "sleeping bag, sleeping _pad, _lantern, first-aid kit, eco-friendly low-lather toiletries, a full charge block for my scroll, multiple changes of clothes," the biggest of the red bags, "an extra person's worth of food because you didn't know I was coming," a cooler bag, "certain personal necessities and you will note I am _wearing,"_ she sprang upright and struck a pose, gesturing grandly towards a foot she'd pointed towards him, "some very excellent and stylish hiking shoes! The sporty appearance of sneakers, the rugged traction of boots! _Hiking shoes."_

"Wow." Tai acknowledged the shoes with, if not the admiration Ruby had been hoping for, at least approval. He then surveyed the truck bed in silence for a moment. "You were already packed," he guessed.

Ruby planted her hands on her hips. "I was already packed."

Bracing himself, Tai pulled the smallest red bag towards him and peeked in to see what exactly Ruby's 'certain personal necessities' were.

"Ruby? This is an entire bag full of comic books."

"We have room," Ruby said swiftly. "Once I get out, we'll have even more room. Did you wanna bring comics? You probably could."

He laughed, shaking his head. "I'm good. Okay, cheeky, you pass with _almost _flying colours. You only missed one thing."

"What!? But I was so careful!"

"Water bottle," Tai reminded her. _"Full _water bottle. No reason not to start out ahead." He picked her up at the waist and hefted her out of the truck bed, grunting softly. "Oof. Stop this growing thing, would ya? Come on, let's go back inside, get your water, and say goodbye to the others, then we can get going."

"Yes!" Ruby cheered, racing towards the front door at what Tai used to think was her top speed.

_She's growing in more ways than one,_ he reflected. _Wish you could be here to see our girl…and it'd be nice to have some consistent parental backup, too. Especially now. Half-Gem teenager, here we come…_

* * *

They were cruising down an empty stretch of southbound highway, the City of Vale long vanished behind them, windows down, wind in their hair, fresh green life all around them. Fields and pasture arrayed around fenced palisades of farmhouses and barns were gradually giving way to unkempt prairie dotted with wildflowers and sprawling deciduous woodland. Craning to see out the driver's side window, Ruby could just glimpse the rising cliffs which housed the derelict Gem stronghold of Beacon. Dead ahead, the Watchful Mountains—more commonly just called the Watchers—loomed large as the truck approached the well-travelled pass that would take them out of the sheltered valley from which Vale took its name.

"So where're we going?" she called over the sound of the wind rushing past and the classic rock pounding out of the radio.

"More than two hours in and _now _you ask?" Taiyang chuckled. "Well, once we cross the Divide, we're gonna follow the mountains along to the southwest until we come to a little town called Coral Hollow. It's tucked in this little dip between the mountains and the coast. Only way in is by sea or through a narrow pass southeast of the town, unless you fly in, but Valean Huntsmen usually have a pretty good handle on the aerial monster population." He raised an eyebrow at Ruby.

"Look, I don't know where the giant bird monster came from, okay?"

"Well, that's the thing. Something like that hanging around in local airspace works wonders for keeping smaller monsters away. And ever since the Gems popped it, Coral Hollow's been reporting a higher incidence of monster attacks, with two confirmed sightings of aerial monsters. Best estimate is they were nesting further inland, while your feathered friend was sticking closer to the coast and only just worked its way far enough north to get our attention."

"Has anyone been hurt?" Ruby asked, alarmed.

"Not so far. Just some property damage and, apparently, a missing cow. Not sure if it was carried off or if it just wandered away from the wreckage of its barn."

"Huh."

Taiyang nodded. "Yeah. So what we're gonna do is scout around the Hollow, try to find the monsters, and if possible track them back to their nests to see if it really is just two of them sharing territory or if there's a small flock of them cooperating."

"Then we poof them, bubble them, and take 'em back home!" Ruby crossed her arms behind her head, smirking. "Easy-peasy."

"Uh, then _I _pop 'em, we put their Gemstones into some of those containment capsules," Tai jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "and pass 'em on for someone else to bubble for long-term storage in Beacon's vault."

"Right, right, right," Ruby said hastily. "Obviously, no monster-poofing for Ruby yet, doy. I bet I can bubble them, though! I bubbled myself just fine last week."

"Are you sure it's the same thing?"

"…Eh…?" Ruby shrugged, smiling nervously, and Tai laughed, shrugging a little himself.

"Tell you what, as long as you follow my lead, I'll let you give it a shot. Worst-case scenario, it doesn't work, we use the capsules, no harm done."

"Awesome! I'm holding you to that."

"Draw me up a contract, I'll sign it."

They were climbing the foothills now, the world in front of the windshield narrowing as the mountains closed in. Beaming, Ruby reached out and turned up the radio.

* * *

They'd left Patch a little after 8:00. It was nearly 2:30 when Taiyang took a final right turn along the backroads of central Vale and set them climbing another mountain pass. This time, instead of wide green spaces, Ruby could glimpse the glimmer of the sea between the peaks.

"And here we are," Tai declared, when at last they'd cleared that final leg of the journey. "Coral Hollow."

It was a pretty little seaside town, a small slew of fishing boats visible out on the water. To Ruby's surprise, what she could see of the architecture had little in common with the clean white edifices, tiled roofs, and broad boulevards that characterised the commercial and residential districts of Vale. Instead, houses of stone sat cheek-by-jowl with cottages walled in brick and old plaster, with an overall tendency for square-footage over height. Red-brick warehouses crowded around the coast here just as they did back home, but more of the beach had been left. Well, and there was more beach to leave, too; the same glacier that had formed the fjord that trisected Vale had eroded the coastline, but if you went far enough to the north or south the alluvial slopes gave way to short, sheer cliffs. Here, the transition from waterline to _terra firma _was a smooth sweep of sand and a touch of scrub. A lighthouse jutted up from a little islet maybe a quarter-mile off the coast, its daymark brilliant scarlet bands of varying thickness on a white background.

"It's beautiful," Ruby declared of the vista as a whole.

"Now, it's a working town, not a tourist spot," Tai warned. "Buuuut, last time I was here there was a great little ice cream parlour down by the beach."

"Are there shops?"

"Well, yeah, people live here."

"Dad. You know what I meant."

"I remember some fun-looking places along Main Street. A little antique store, bookstore, maybe a clothing boutique. Probably a just-in-case souvenir shop." He grinned at his daughter. "Wanna see how many of 'em we can hit before we have to head back out to make camp?"

A garbled growling noise answered him. Ruby rested a hand on her stomach, reddening. "Lunch first?" she suggested.

* * *

'All of them', was the answer, though to be fair, Taiyang's memory had been correct in telling him there weren't a great many stores of the fun-and-frivolous variety in the first place. After a lunch of fried fish, Ruby grabbed her father by the wrist and barrelled into the bookshop in a literal whirlwind.

"Dr. Oobleck would love this!" she proclaimed, holding up a book of compiled maritime lore, legends and superstition by a local author. "I'm getting it."

"_Hnnnnng_ look at it it's a tiny motorcycle!" she squealed, peering at a knick-knack in the glass-art gallery (glassblowing was, to Ruby's surprise, A Thing in Coral Hollow). "Yang needs this."

"I need _these,"_ she decided in the clothing store, holding a card with a pair of red coral studs pushed through it up to her ear, eyeing the result with satisfaction in a nearby mirror. "Ohh…"

She set the earrings down as another flash of red caught her eye. Crossing the shop, she took hold of the broad, wired brim of a fabric beach hat, its underside deep red and its exterior a brilliant white. A gauzy white ribbon was tied in an elegant bow around the base of the crown, but it was otherwise unadorned.

"Didn't think you were a hat person," Taiyang said, patiently waiting with her other purchases in bags hooked over his arm. "It'll get in the way of your hood."

Ruby smiled as she turned the hat in her hands, examining it closely. "It's not for me."

"If it's for Qrow, I want photos."

"Weiss is Atlesian. She probably isn't used to being out in the sun. She's got really pale skin, and she looks like a hat person."

"Didn't you just meet her?"

"Yeah, but…" Ruby shrugged, checking the price tag. "It's not _that _much. And I really think she'll like it."

So along it came with a faded blue T-shirt that featured a pixelated cetacean seen from above, jumping through a series of rings on a starry background. Taiyang squinted at it.

"Ah," he said at length. "We meet again, my childhood archnemesis."

"Jaune's got a thing for geeky stuff that isn't obviously geeky so he can wear it without worrying about made fun of," Ruby explained. "Plus a lot of his stuff is hand-me-downs with most of his sisters being older than him, so he grew up on retro games."

Taiyang chuckled. "What, do you keep a list of people's interests so you can shop for them?"

Ruby blushed. "No," she said quickly. "That'd be—who overthinks social interaction like that, not me, obviously. Didn't you say there'd be ice cream?"

* * *

"So, if a dolphin sings in a reef," Taiyang asked, handing Ruby a waffle cone full of strawberry ice cream, "would you call that _coral _music?"

Ruby stopped dead in her tracks, gaping up at him in horror. "Dad, no. Why."

"Dad _yes!" _Tai countered expertly before taking a huge bite out of his own cone of mint chocolate.

* * *

They made camp in first low foothills on the Hollow side of the mountains, near enough to the pass that they could quickly pile into the truck to catch up with any monsters that looked to be retreating over the peaks but close enough to the town that they wouldn't miss an attack. A few scrubby junipers provided a modicum of cover. There was no guarantee their quarry would strike under cover of darkness, but monsters being possessed of both predatory instinct and excellent night vision, it was, Taiyang assured Ruby, quite likely.

"So what we'll do is set watches," he said as they sat around their little campfire, mess kits washed as best as possible and packed away again. "Since there's two of us, we might as well. It's after eight now, so you can roll into bed anytime between now and nine, but don't leave it much longer. I'll take the first watch, then trade off with you at two AM; even fifty-fifty split. Once the clock hits seven or you can't keep your eyes open anymore, then you can wake me up and catch up on your last few hours of sleep. And, obviously, if you see anything while you're on watch, wake me up right away, got it? I'll do the same for you."

Ruby nodded. "Got it."

"That's my girl." He toasted her with his travel mug of coffee. Ruby did the same with her own plastic cup of cocoa, taking a drink. She couldn't help but make a face as she did so.

"Shoulda brought your own," Taiyang teased her, shaking his head. "Ozpin's turned you into a chocolate snob. Atlas Lass just isn't good enough for you anymore!"

"It's okay, really!" Ruby protested. "I mean, okay, it's really not _good, _but…it reminds me of when you used to take me camping in the Emerald Forest, and we'd hike the mountain trails together."

"Yeah." Tai grinned. "Those were good times. Remember when you tried to chase that mountain goat?"

"I was _seven!_ That was almost half my lifetime ago!"

"I still have pictures," he warned, sing-song.

"I have pictures of my own!" she shot back. "Do the words _mariachi table-dancing _mean anything to you?"

Tai paled. "Yang swore she burned those!"

"The ruffly shirt adds a certain," Ruby pinched her thumb against her first two fingers, gesturing emphatically, _"mm, _you know?"

"Aw, man. Look, in my defense, that was from before I put two and two together and realised sentient light constructs couldn't get drunk, okay?"

"I don't know if I'd really call that a _defense, _Dad."

"Argh." He waved her off good-naturedly, taking another long pull off his coffee. They sat in silence for a time, and slowly Tai's signature goofy Dad smile turned smaller, softer, as he kept his eyes on the fire.

"…What is it?" Ruby asked finally.

"Just remembering hunting trips with your mom. Y'know, she's, uh, she's actually the whole reason I became a Huntsman in the first place." He laughed quietly, shaking his head.

"Really?" Ruby's eyes were wide.

"Yep. True fact, your ol' dad learned to fight monsters to impress a woman. You may now laugh."

"…No." Ruby shook her head, eyeing him suspiciously. "There's more to it than that. Right?"

"Mm, not really. Well." Tai tipped his head back, looking up at the stars. "I guess…it wasn't so much that I wanted to impress her as I wanted to spend more time with her. And—and actually be able to contribute, too, not just be some, I don't know, what's the term. Millstone? Albatross? I don't know. She was always going out on missions, and it started to feel like my whole life was just sitting around waiting for her to come home." Tai lifted one of his shoulders in a shrug.

"But I didn't want to be one of those guys who gets all prickly about their partners working, and, I mean, hunting was more than just a job to her. It was her duty, her calling. I couldn't make her give that up. So I started hitting the gym more, enrolled in a martial arts class, and asked Yang to help me get into fighting shape—we got along best out of the other Gems, and I figured she was a hand-to-hand specialist, so she'd be able to get me started without having to worry too much about equipment."

"Wait-wait-wait. _Yang _trained you?" Ruby stared. Then she broke down laughing. "Oh _wow!"_

"Aaaand that's about how it went, yeah." Tai slapped his hand against his knee, looking rueful. "A few dozen bruises later, I was actually coming along, too. Honestly, the classes did most of the heavy lifting, especially in the beginning, but Yang could teach me to take what I was learning about fighting organics and apply it to fighting Gem monsters instead. Eventually she talked Qrow into helping out and oh boy, did _that_ not go well at first. Do you know how scary it is to be standing there all proud of your yellow belt and then there's this alien badass coming at you with a freaking _scythe?_ Never tell him I called him a badass, by the way."

"My lips are sealed, but—c'mon, you and Qrow are best friends!"

"Sure, we are _now._ Back then he thought I was dead weight and distracting your mom from more important things. Learning to fight actually helped a lot with that. Once he realised I wasn't going to get frustrated and give up, he started to warm up to me a little. And when I got to the point that I could hold my own enough to have his back in a fight, it was like I passed some kind of secret test. Suddenly we were 'hunting buddies' and that meant we went out and did stupid things together and called them 'adventures'." Taiyang sighed, shaking his head, but there was a fond, wry smile on his lips. "Summer would always be _so _exasperated when we'd get back. Yang was thrilled, 'cause it meant some of the heat was finally off of her…hey, what's up?"

Ruby was frowning slightly, watching the fire. It was starting to burn low. "Did Qrow really not like you because you couldn't fight?"

"…Aw, honey. That's not quite it." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Thing is, Qrow's kind of a gatekeeper at heart. You know what that is?"

"Not really?"

"A gatekeeper is someone who sets standards for other people to meet before letting them in. Like a hardcore fan of something that won't consider anyone else a 'true fan' unless they can answer obscure trivia questions. Qrow's a little bit like that. 'You must be this tough to be my friend'," he joked, lifting his hand away from Ruby's shoulder to hold it level in the air instead, "that kind of thing. And I'm sure you've noticed, but a lot of Gems don't really handle change well, especially when it happens on a timescale that uses days and weeks instead of centuries. So when one day suddenly there was this human nobody tagging around after Summer, I was threatening a status quo he'd been happy with for literally thousands of years." Tai snickered. "The 'status Qrow', if you will."

Ruby gave him an injured look, and he relented.

"Not the point. I was new, I was strange—well, I was _normal,_ and I don't think Gems really know what to do with organic-normal, since it changes with the times—it put Qrow on his guard. I don't know if learning to fight was something where I'd proved myself to him, or if what it really did was make me…I guess, _accessible_ to him? Once I was a fellow fighter, that was something he could understand, you know? Something he could relate to. And once he could do that, it was easier for him to let me in and get to know me, to admit to himself that I was someone worth getting to know. But you?" Tai smiled. "You're already in. You're the daughter of his best friends. He's known you were worth it from the moment he first saw you. I promise you that. Ask him yourself, and I know he'll tell you the same."

Ruby blushed, smiling back. "So…you were trained by Yang and Qrow."

"I'm not sure whether I'd call most of what Qrow and I got up to _training, _but—hey, they're training you, right? It's not that weird."

"Yeah, but I grew up with them. It's hard to imagine them training anyone _else. _I kind of assumed you learned from Ozpin, since teaching's kind of his whole thing."

Taiyang took a deep breath and let it out sharply. "Oh, I learned from Ozpin, alright." His jaw worked for a moment, as if he was literally chewing on whatever he was considering. "See," he finally said, "once Qrow decided I was worth bothering with, that was apparently the cue for Ozpin to take an interest. By which I mean he took me out on a mission and let me walk right into a pit of snake monsters and then stepped back and _watched. _I honestly don't know if he had that much confidence in my skills or if he was actually trying to murder me and make it look like a tragic accident."

"Yeah." Ruby snickered. "Ozpin's big on practical lessons."

"No-no-no, listen: Once I fought the snakes off I straight-up asked him if he was trying to kill me and he just _looked _at me, then said it was the _monsters _who were trying to kill me and that it was _my _idea to put myself in a position where they'd be able to. And then he _smiled _and congratulated me on, and I quote, 'not being dead yet'."

"Well, there you go!" Ruby said cheerfully. "C'mon, he'd never _really_ let anything happen to you."

"…I'm sure he wouldn't _now," _Taiyang allowed, and left it at that.

"So how did Mom react when she found out about your training?"

"Eh…" Tai bobbled his head back and forth to indicate uncertainty. "She was kind of horrified at first. Didn't want me getting hurt. But I'm not exactly the first organic to take up monster-hunting, and once she managed to wrap her head around the idea that I really did know what I was doing, we wound up having a lot of fun working together. She and Qrow and Yang and even Ozpin made me feel like part of the team. I liked that. I liked it a lot." He smiled, closing his eyes. "Sometimes we'd go out together, just the two of us. If we wrapped up a job quickly enough, we'd scout around until we found somewhere nice and make a date of it. One time, we had a picnic next to a waterfall. Couldn't hear a word we were saying to each other, but it was so beautiful. Or there was this tea plantation just outside Mistral, one of those little places that serves its teas on-site with finger-foods, and we wound up spending a fortune on some rare first-flush Matsu Black that I really loved…shopping in a travelling market by a Vacuan oasis, trying to find a scarf with _just _the right shades of red so it wouldn't clash with her cloak…"

Ruby wrapped her fingers around the edges of that cloak and pulled it tight around her, drawing her knees against her chest beneath it. The fire wasn't much more than embers now.

"I'm not deaf to the parallels, you know," Taiyang said quietly. "I know how you feel, wanting to step up and take part, and I know how _I _felt when people told me the kinds of things I've been telling you. That it's dangerous, that you're not ready. But, Ruby, I_ wasn't _ready. Those snake monsters? I wasn't being dramatic. They almost killed me. Before that, when Yang and Qrow would sneak me out hunting with them, I lost count of the number of times they had to swoop in and rescue me. There's no way to get experience without taking risks, but you have to work your way up. I was lucky. I want you to be _better _than lucky. I want you to be smart and careful. You'll be a great Huntress someday. Please don't get yourself hurt trying to be a good-enough Huntress now. I don't want that, the Gems don't want that…and your mom wouldn't want that, either."

Ruby hugged herself tighter. "I love you, Dad," she said at last, looking up at him.

Tai reached over and ruffled her hair, then tugged her hood up over her head. "Love you too, rosebud."

* * *

Ruby was bored. She was _trying _not to be; this was her first mission with her dad, she didn't want to mess that up! But sitting up all night, peering through the dark and trying to decide which shadows were just shadows and which were deadly monsters—it had been kind of harrowing for the first hour or so after Taiyang had turned in, the way any proper adventure should be. Three hours in, it was…less than riveting.

She didn't really get why they couldn't both just sleep. Gem monsters weren't really known for subtlety, and Ozpin had said these were Beta-Class, so they'd be about the size of Taiyang's truck at the small end. Would an experienced Huntsman and the apprentice of three of the greatest Gem Hunters to ever live (and daughter of the_ single _greatest, no less!) _really _sleep through an attack from something like _that?_

Ruby rolled the weighted baton Tai had given her 'just in case' down her lap to her knees and back as she remained perched on a rock maybe ten feet away from their improvised firepit, a pile of ashes long since gone cold. She hummed to herself softly for a few minutes. The atonal little tune ended in a rush of air blown between her lips, as if she were a particularly exasperated horse. She checked the time on her scroll: 5:37. No signal; the mountains made reception tricky. The sky had begun to lighten, blue-black rather than star-studded void, and the shattered moon was slipping towards the horizon. She bit back a yawn.

Suddenly, a flash of movement caught her eye. Ruby's head whipped around, eyes locking on the spot. Nothing. Or maybe…?

Squinting, Ruby slipped off her little boulder, gripping the handle of the baton in both hands like a baseball bat; they just barely fit together on a space clearly made to leave a single adult hand a bit of room. Slowly, quietly, she crept through the scrub towards the shadow that had caught her attention. When she reached the spot, there was nothing there, and she let out her breath in a sigh that wasn't quite relief _or_ disappointment.

There was a rustling off to her left, and Ruby wheeled around, raising her baton high. A stand of gnarled bushes some distance away, near the top of a low hill, shook in the still air, and she almost called out for Tai.

_What if it's just an animal or something and I'm jumping at nothing? He'll think I'm scared! What if he never lets me hunt with him again?_

Setting her jaw, Ruby inched forward, picking her footing carefully on the gentle slope. When she got close, the shaking stopped. She bent closer—and reeled back with a stifled shriek as a fox streaked out, racing across the rolling landscape like the hounds were after it. Heart pounding, Ruby let her arms drop, breathing heavily as the baton grazed the ground.

"See?" she told herself quietly. "Nothing."

A rush of compressed air was her only warning before something incredibly heavy swooped down and knocked her to the ground. Ice-cold wiry fur scraped her skin as she went down, and she glimpsed the thing arcing up into the sky again—something like a giant bat?—as she struggled upright. There was the glint of a Gemstone set near the crown of its skull, which was elongated and wolflike; two staring eyes were set in a line on either side of its head, one set reddish-orange, the other electric blue, and all four glowing. She could see all this with excellent clarity, as it was even now coming about and angling for another dive, toothy muzzle pointing right at her and opening wide.

The hill. She'd climbed the hill, she was right in the open—a perfect target. Stupid!

Ruby had just enough time to plant her feet and raise her baton before it was on her again; with a yell, she swung, catching it right in the mouth and knocking it aside. Its teeth caught in the wood of the baton, ripping it from her grasp as the monster tumbled away. Ruby glanced at her empty hands in horrified disbelief. Already the monster was recovering, flapping its leathery wings like an ungainly gull as it righted itself, and Ruby stumbled back in an awkward half-running gait, feet pivoting to turn and flee even as she remained transfixed by the monster rising into the air, its own hateful stare still set firmly on her, baton still hanging from its mouth.

"Agh!"

She cried out as she lost her footing, tripping over her own feet and sprawling to the ground; with a harsh cry of its own, the bat-monster stooped down towards her. Ruby tried to get her feet back under her, scrambling for the leverage to get up and get moving before the monster could reach her. With a sickening clench in her stomach, she realised she wasn't going to make it.

"_Dad!" _she screamed.

As if in answer, there was a blinding light and an explosion of noise and heat. The monster screeched in pain, once again knocked off-course just short of its prey.

Taiyang lunged past Ruby, slinging the shotgun over his back and reaching down to his thigh holsters, drawing a pair of tonfa without breaking stride. He flung himself onto the bat-monster, waling on its underbelly with sharp, rhythmic blows as it feebly attempted to swipe at him with its wings, kicking out with its stunted but wickedly-clawed feet. It didn't last long under the punishment, letting loose another shriek and collapsing in on itself, light scattering and dissipating as its Gemstone fell to the ground, along with the splintered remains of the baton.

Tai left it all where it lay, jamming his tonfa back into their holsters and rushing over to where Ruby was gingerly picking herself up. He seized her and hugged her close, Ruby gripping him back just as tightly, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked breathlessly.

"'m fine," Ruby mumbled into his shirt. "'m okay."

Her father let out a shuddering sigh, squeezing her before letting go. His face was stern, and Ruby tucked her chin down, huddling into her cloak as she braced herself.

"What were you thinking?" Taiyang demanded.

"I'm sorry," she said immediately.

"You were supposed to wake me up if you heard anything. That's the whole reason you set watches, Ruby! So that whoever's watching can tell everyone else when something's happening!"

"I was going to but there was a fox and—!"

Another eerie screech split the night, and Tai and Ruby turned to see a second monster wheeling through the air. Not a bat, this time; something very much like the bird monster from before writ small. For a value of 'small' that meant it was about the size of a fighter jet.

Tai reached for his belt, pulling a small sphere off of it: a collapsed Gem containment capsule. "You know how to use one of these?"

Ruby nodded, and he pressed it into her hands along with the truck key.

"Store the Gemstone, then go back down to camp and wait in the truck. It's the safest place you can reach out here. If I'm not back by sunrise, call me; if I don't answer, call the Gems. Got it?"

"But—"

"_Got it?"_

"Got it," she said quickly, and Taiyang nodded, a single sharp gesture.

"I love you," he said. "Be safe."

He took off at before Ruby could reply, moving at a dead run towards where the bird monster still circled. Or—no, she realised; it was moving closer, even as it drifted in gentle, graceful loops through the sky. No wonder Tai was moving on foot. He'd only have to close a fraction of the distance between them; the monster would do the rest.

On shaky legs, Ruby made her way over to the fallen Gemstone; it was a smooth cabochon, mottled blue-and-white. Sodalite, maybe? She took it in her hands, trying to will a bubble into being. No good. Making the shield around herself and Weiss had been easier than any of her earlier attempts, but it was just too hard to think of that bat-monster as something in need of protection and safe-keeping.

Feeling more miserable than ever, Ruby set the stone down again, retrieving the capsule from her pocket and twisting it open, separating the two halves of the sphere. There were buttons atop the two hollow domes; she held one dome over the Gemstone and clicked the button. Purple-black Gravity Dust activated, drawing the stone up towards the dome; once it was high enough, Ruby held the other dome underneath and clicked it, so that it was being pulled equally in opposite directions, hovering between the domes. Finally, Ruby tilted the whole apparatus sideways and clicked both buttons at once, and the space between the domes sealed with cyan Hard Light Dust, pushed out smoothly to accommodate the size of the Gemstone by dint of the opposing gravitational fields surrounding it. It wasn't a perfect system, and the Dust would run out eventually, but it only had to last long enough for a Huntsman to pass it on to a Gem who could bubble it and send through the warps to Beacon.

A harsh, avian skriking pulled her out of her melancholy contemplation of the contained Gemstone, drawing her attention back towards the bird monster. She heard Taiyang's shotgun bellow once, twice—she couldn't clearly see the flash from the barrel anymore, though. It was nearly dawn. Which meant she _could, _to her surprise, see the fight itself. The bird monster was employing similar tactics to the bat, but instead of diving beak-first it pulled up slightly on approach, sailing over Tai and trying to crush him in its huge, brutal talons. It wasn't having much luck; it was big, but not so big Taiyang couldn't dodge and he did so fluidly, without apparent difficulty. Reluctantly, Ruby started to turn away. Her father knew what he was doing, and he wouldn't be happy if he came back to find she'd disobeyed his instructions in a life-or-death situation.

Then something caught her eye. Another of those quick, barely-there flashes of movements, a flickering shadow slithering on the edge of her vision, just like before . Only this time, Ruby had the high ground. This time, Ruby could see the whole area laid out before her, and soon the flickers and flashes resolved into a cohesive image, like the still frames of an old film slowly being cranked up to full speed.

"No," she breathed, watching the darkly-banded serpent monster slithering through the hills towards the mêlée. "Dad!" she yelled, dropping the capsule and cupping her hands around her mouth. _"Dad!"_

He couldn't hear her.

"No, no, _no!"_

They were too far away and the snake was too close; even if she used her powers, all she'd do was put herself between the serpent and her father. That wouldn't even buy him time; he'd be preoccupied trying to help her and then the bird monster would get him.

"Turn around," she urged. "Listen! Can't you hear it!?"

Unnoticed, the Gemstone on her sternum began to glow. Ruby lowered her hands and screamed in frustration, looking around desperately. She had to find some way of getting his attention, _something _that would let him know the danger was coming. Could she throw something—?

The light from her Gemstone flared, and suddenly there was a weight in her right hand, the object she was holding tipping forward alarmingly; she brought up her other hand automatically to brace it, looking down in shock. She was holding a black-and-red gun, its design eerily reminiscent of the sci-fi shooters she liked to play. In fact, it looked suspiciously like her preferred sniper rifle from the game she'd played most recently.

She was _good _at that game.

Ruby didn't stop to think, setting her feet apart in the grounded stance Yang had taught her for hand-to-hand, setting the rifle's stock against her shoulder and lining her eye up with the scope, scanning the ground for the snake monster while trying desperately to recall every piece of realistic advice she might ever have absorbed about firing a gun like this. There wasn't much. Her heart pounded wildly.

_That's gonna throw off the shot,_ she realised as she finally spotted the monster. It was scant yards away from her father and his battle with the bird monster. _This isn't like the games—I can't make this!_

…_I have to._

She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and squeezed the trigger.

The shot wasn't as loud as Ruby had expected; maybe Gem guns were quieter. It still sent a sharp _crack _through the night as the gun slammed back into her tensed shoulder, making her hiss in pain. A glowing projectile streaked through the pre-dawn light, arcing down and burying itself in a tree several paces away from where she'd thought she'd aimed.

Ruby swore, since it seemed like the time for it, and raised the rifle's barrel again—but Taiyang had whipped around at the sound of the shot, at last noticing the beast slithering up behind him. He tumbled out of the way just as the snake struck. The bird, spotting an opening, dived again with a harsh cry.

"Lead the shot, lead the shot," Ruby whispered, aiming for a spot just below the bird and firing again. "Yes!"

It recoiled, shrieking, as the bullet clipped its wing, flapping clumsily into the sky once more and buying Tai the time he needed to roll to his feet, facing the snake with his tonfa readied. To Ruby's shock, however, the bird didn't try to come about for another go. Instead it beat its wings sharply and arrowed straight for her position.

"Oh no." Ruby tried to target it, but it was fast enough and now close enough that she couldn't keep it in the scope; it seemed to understand what she held and wasn't flying steady, weaving to and fro in almost a zig-zag pattern. Or maybe it couldn't fly straight, on account of the wounded wing, and wouldn't that just be the crowner. Maybe when it got close, she could use the rifle as a club?

She lowered the gun, bracing herself. It was her best shot, and it was a really big bird. It wasn't like she was trying to hit a shapeshifted Qrow. She remembered when she was little, trying to catch the little black bird that was his preferred other form in her hands while he cackled, the sound entirely at home in a corvid throat. She wished he was here. One good swing of his scythe, and this monster would be history…

And then the rifle she held shimmered and changed, growing longer and lighter—at least until a curved, wickedly-sharp blade sprouted from the end furthest from her. The weapon still had a mechanical, futuristic look to it, but otherwise it was the twin of Qrow's summoned weapon, sized perfectly for her. How—?

"Never mind, goin' with it!" Ruby declared, hauling back and swinging the scythe with all her might. The bird was nearly on top of her now, letting out a triumphant screech that cut off in a strangled sound as the blade found purchase. Ruby _yanked, _hard as she could, and the scythe ripped free, tearing the monster almost in half. She staggered back, gasping for breath, and watched as the creature imploded, a gemstone falling to land at her feet.

"Oh good," she said faintly, and dropped to the ground, hugging the scythe's handle to her chest and drawing her knees up.

That was how Tai found her some minutes later when he returned, a capsuled gemstone in one hand. He looked at her for a long moment. Then he captured the bird monster's gemstone, set the two capsules down side-by-side, and came to sit next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"Congratulations," he said quietly.

"Is it always like this?" she asked, her voice shaky.

"It gets easier. Never stops being scary, if that's what you mean. But you learn how to push it down. Tune it out. Even get to the point where you enjoy the exertion and the tension and the on-the-fly tactical thinking—but it's always hard, and it's always dangerous. Especially for us."

"Organics."

"Organics. We have to be just as tough and twice as careful to do the same job as Gems who hunt."

"I _didn't _hear the bat monster," Ruby said softly. "I heard a fox. The monster snuck up on me."

"After you climbed a hill going after the fox?"

"…Yeah. Not very 'smart and careful' of me, huh?"

"Nope." Taiyang shook his head, and Ruby's shoulders slumped. "But I know you'll do better next time."

She looked up at him, startled. "Next time?"

He was smiling at her. "Well, yeah. You messed up in the beginning, but you recovered. You were the one who shot to warn me about the snake, right?"

Ruby nodded.

"And then you distracted the bird. Risky move, and I'd be lying if I said I liked knowing it was coming down on you and I couldn't stop it—but then _you _stopped it. And that's, that's _terrifying _for me to think about, but…I'm proud of you."

Ruby beamed. Taiyang chuckled and reached out, tapping the scythe she still cradled. "And I see you figured out how to get your mom's weapon working. It start out as a rifle?"

"Mmhm!"

"Interesting. For your mom, it was always a shotgun. Glad to see it knows you're your own person."

"But how did it turn into a scythe?"

"I'm gonna go ahead and guess you were thinking about Qrow's scythe. That's how it worked for your mom."

"…It…turns into whatever weapon I'm thinking about!?" Ruby's gaze went distant as she imagined the possibilities.

"Not quite. The way Summer described it, it has to be a weapon belonging to someone you're close to. And I think it has to be a Gem weapon, you know, a summoned one. Hey, hey!" Taiyang protested with a laugh as Ruby shrugged off his arm and stood, holding out her scythe and squeezing her eyes shut.

"Hah!" Ruby cried triumphantly as the scythe dissolved into light that focused on her wrists, resolving into sharper-edged, red-and-black versions of Yang's gauntlets. "Whoa, these are heavy!"

Tai shook his head as he got to his feet, going around and collecting the captured gemstones. He tethered them to his belt, then carefully gathered up the shattered pieces of the baton.

"Hey!" Ruby protested suddenly. "It won't turn into Ozpin's cane!"

"_Summoned _weapons," Tai reminded her. "And you have to be able to picture them, so."

"Oh," she sighed, disappointed. "I'll just have to get him to show it to me when we get home."

"Good luck with that," he muttered doubtfully. "Hey, I know it's exciting, Ruby, but that adrenaline high isn't going to last. We need to get back to camp while the getting's good."

She grumbled, but she closed her eyes and frowned in concentration. Her gauntlets vanished.

"So where do we go from here?" she asked as they descended the hill towards their campsite. "Do we try to find their nest sites, like you said on the way?"

"No need. The good news is that three different kinds of monsters would have been living individually; if any of the three had any kind of pack or flock or…whatever you call a group of snakes, there wouldn't have been _other _kinds of monsters around, just a bunch of the same type. Solo monsters won't usually compete with a group. The bad news is that there were three completely different Beta-Class monsters operating in one small area, which means," Tai said grimly, "local Huntsmen haven't been keeping a close enough eye on things out here. I'll make sure to put the word out once we have reception again."

"Oh." Ruby tried not to let her disappointment show. "So we'll be going home?"

"Did I say that?" Tai grinned. "I was thinking we'd catch some sleep and then maybe see what the hiking's like around here. I bet the place is real pretty when you're not having to keep an eye out for monsters. We can drive back tomorrow. How's that sound?"

"Like the best idea either of us have had since yesterday," Ruby said with feeling.

* * *

"Giant bat," Taiyang said the next afternoon, setting the capsule down on the counter. "Giant bird. Giant snake." He fixed Ozpin with a _look _as he relinquished the last one.

"How nostalgic," Ozpin said mildly, giving Tai a placid smile as he entered the release sequence and caught the gemstone, encasing it in a bubble of green energy with a smooth, swift motion. "Hm. Epidote."

Ruby butted in front of Tai. "I poofed that one!" she said proudly as Ozpin moved on to the bird monster's Gem.

"Is that so? Well, your bird is a Tiger's Eye, ironically enough."

"It…it's my first monster, Ozpin," Ruby tried again. "I poofed it. By myself."

"I see. That must have been harrowing." Ozpin freed and bubbled the last gemstone, not looking up as he replied. "I'm glad you're unharmed."

Behind Ruby, Taiyang was giving Ozpin another pointed look, one that clearly said _I know what you're doing, stop it. _Ozpin, however, had called up a holographic window from his scroll, and was updating the database of captured gemstones.

"Okay?" Ruby waited a moment longer, then sighed. "Yang and Qrow out back?"

"When last I saw them."

"Alright. I'll just go tell them I'm back."

As she headed for the hallway to the back door, Tai's pointed look became a full-on glare. He reached out and banished the pane Ozpin was working on. Ozpin remained gazing at the space where it had been for a brief moment.

"Young Rose?" he called out.

Ruby immediately popped her head back into view, looking anxious, and Taiyang blanked his face. Ozpin turned to her, meeting her eyes at last, and smiled.

"Well done," he told her.

Ruby beamed and vanished again, the sound of her footsteps pounding into a run as she raced for the back door.

"_Qrow! Yang! I summoned my Gem weapon and poofed a monster with it!"_ she hollered; Taiyang heard the door slam open and shut in rapid succession.

"Was that _so damn hard?"_ he demanded, bringing his palms down on the counter as he turned his glare back onto Ozpin. "You _know _how much your opinion means to her. And _I _know you're actually capable of giving a damn, so what the hell was with that unimpressed act!?"

Ozpin met his glare with an even, silent stare, his face utterly expressionless. Outside, they could hear laughing and cheering; a distant but distinct _"That's my girl!" _in Qrow's rough voice and something from Yang that sounded like _"No, no, you gotta tell it _right_, like…"_ layering over the mile-a-minute piping chatter of Ruby's excited storytelling.

"Do you ever wonder who they were?" he asked, gesturing at the bubbled Gems before him.

"I…assume that whoever they were, they'd rather not be hurting people," Taiyang replied, taken aback. "What does that have to do with—?"

"Not necessarily. These might have been allies, they might have been enemies; there's no way to tell except for the rare occasion when we stumble across someone we used to know. And even then, identifying a specific Gem from just their stone…they would have to have been a close friend." Ozpin lightly tapped the Tiger's Eye, setting it spinning lazily in midair. "I assure you, I would not have allowed Ruby to go on believing I was indifferent to her performance. I _am _proud that she acquitted herself well on your hunt. But this work isn't about glory and triumph. It is a systematic and seemingly-endless process of cleaning up after a war Qrow and I still vividly remember and always will. Where Qrow finds the hunt cathartic, however, I find it little more than a grim necessity. Thus, Ruby's enthusiasm occasionally strikes an unfortunate chord with me. I do not fault her for it. She simply doesn't yet understand."

"I don't suppose you've considered talking to her?" Taiyang suggested, but without much bite to it.

"She knows the broad strokes of the war. She knows the monsters we fight were once Gems like us. She has the knowledge she needs to eventually understand. The rest is down to growing up. Not something I particularly feel the need to force on her."

"No," Tai said quietly, looking down at the countertop. "Me either. …I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"Nonsense." Ozpin smiled. "You're a good father, Taiyang. You thought I was doing wrong by your child. Of course you intervened. What parent wouldn't do as much?"

"…I know this sounds awful, but it's kind of surreal to hear a Gem talk parenthood."

"I daresay that's more accurate than awful. We really have the context."

Taiyang shook his head with a bemused little smile, stepping away and heading towards the same hallway Ruby had zipped down. He only got a few paces away before he froze, something going _click _inside his brain and demanding his attention.

"Oh my _gods," _he groaned. "It was a shovel speech."

"Pardon?"

Taiyang turned on his heel, crossing his arms and staring at Ozpin. "The snake pit. When you shoved me into the deep end on my first hunt with you. It was your twisted-ass version of a shovel speech! 'So you're dating my impressionable younger friend? That's nice; on a completely unrelated note, let's go off to an undisclosed location together, just the two of us, all alone, so I can demonstrate one of the many ways I could _kill you_ without lifting a finger!'"

"That was a terrible impression," Ozpin noted, peering over his spectacles with an expression of absolute solemnity. "I neither sound nor speak like that."

Taiyang stifled an incredulous laugh. "You manipulative bastard!"

"Really, Tai, we just discussed the fact that Gems don't have parents. How can mine have been unmarried?" He turned back to the counter, once again calling up a window from his scroll. "And as for manipulative, honestly, if I _had _been trying to impress upon you an acute sense of your own mortality and fragility, standing idly by as you walked under your own power into a den of monsters is about as subtle as a hammer."

"So you're saying that isn't what you were doing?"

"I'm saying that if it was, you certainly took your time figuring it out." His voice sounded level, but when Taiyang tilted his head to catch Ozpin's reflection in the kitchen window, he was pretty sure he saw a grin on the Garnet's face.

"The next time I hear someone complain about their in-laws, I swear to god," Taiyang muttered, throwing up his hands and resuming his journey to the back door. Outside, a large bird with Qrow's Gemstone on its back was swooping down on Ruby who, laughing, was swinging a broom towards it as if it were her scythe while Yang cheered.

"Get him! Hit that bird! Make him _bleed!"_

"Wh—_make him_ _bleed?"_ the bird echoed, offended, as it pulled up sharply. "What the hell, Yang?"

"Qrooooow, you're ruining the scene," Ruby whined, lowering the broom.

"It's just kinda dark, that's all!"

"Said _Qrow Black Pearl, _scythe-wielding edgelord extraordinaire! You don't even _have _blood, you baby, what's the big deal?"

"Hey Ruby, ever seen a little twerp get backhanded by a giant wing before?"

"No, but she's sure seen a giant bird get its feathered ass handed to it! Mind if I put my own spin on this take?"

"Oh boy," Taiyang breathed, pushing the door open and stepping outside. "Do y'all seriously need the second-youngest person on the property to be the grown-up here? Yang, put your hair out; we _cannot _set the back yard on fire again. Qrow, stop making airplane noises, you're a bird, that's stupid. Ruby: keep doing what you're doing, you're killing it. Alright, places everyone; let's take it from the top!"

* * *

_**A/N: So hey, Fun Fact Time:**_

_**\- Ruby has a transforming weapon because it used to be Summer's, and I am not a member of Camp Scythe-Wielding Summer. This way, I could give Ruby a scythe without giving Summer one, while also ensuring that Ruby's weapon is in fact also a gun.**_

_**\- I finally figured out what that squiggly blue underline in MS Word is really for: it's a dad joke detector. No, really. The only one it missed was 'status Qrow' and that's just because Word only knows that 'Qrow' has been added to its dictionary and not what it actually means.**_

_**\- There should be a third fact here because I'm a firm believer in the rule of three, but I don't actually have one, which is in itself a fact and thus, arguably, this entire run-on sentence is not only a grammatical abomination but also a paradox.**_

_**Comments and critiques are always welcome. Thanks for reading!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: **__****_The SU episode up for adaptation today: Steven's Lion. The precision of said adaptation: negligible. But h_****__**ey, look, the Gems are actually properly in this one. And Weiss is back! It's an Easter miracle!**__****_

_**Since I know there are several readers who haven't seen Steven Universe, I just wanted to take this moment to assure you that Zwei's more unusual attributes were not actually pulled directly out of the ether or other, less politely-discussable locations. On which note, review replies...  
**_

_**dperson3569: Figuring out how Raven might fit into the story was a bit of a struggle, since her relationships with Yang and Qrow are equally important in canon but the latter two characters obviously don't have their biological connection in this AU, somewhat cutting Raven out of the equation. As to what I ultimately settled on for her...we'll get there! Best of wishes to you as well during this distinctly challenging time.  
**_

_**Spartan-100**** and darkvampirekisses: Glad y'all continue to enjoy based on the RWBY side of things alone! While obviously the point of a crossover is to bring fandoms together, the fact that this fic can be enjoyed by people only familiar with one property or the other is very encouraging.**_

_**thewittywhy**__**: **__**I 100% intend to include Fusions; just got to build up to a point where it'll fit into the story. Ruby and Weiss especially still have some getting-to-know-each-other to do first. FWIW though, the current version of my plot outline says Chapter 5 will be loosely based on **_**Giant Woman..._so you can look forward to meeting Charoite sooner rather than later._**

**_And now, onward!_**

* * *

**Ruby's Corgi**

Ruby craned her head back, trying to get a proper look at the mansion in front of her. Based on her window count, it was a three-storey affair, made of pristine white marble that Ruby would bet money came out of the same quarry from which the stones and spires of Beacon had been hewn millennia ago. From Qrow's less-than-flattering commentary on the subject, that seemed like the kind of prestige-by-proxy the Schnee family would be willing to shell out for. She tried to imagine spending the sort of money it would take to build a house like this and then to use it only two or three times a year.

"Nope," she said at last, shaking her head as her imagination failed her. "But hey, at least I know this is the right address. Let's do this."

She pressed the buzzer by the gate and waited, clasping her hands behind her back. As the silence stretched on, only broken by the intermittent sounds of light traffic behind her, she jiggled her leg nervously, tugging needlessly at her skirt to make sure it was properly in place. She was glad she'd thought to dress up a little, in a black sundress dotted with little rose patterns. She hoped her sandals passed muster; they were nothing special, and rich people had a weird obsession about expensive shoes according to Yang. The hoodie was a non-starter with a dress, so she'd pinned her freshly-laundered cloak on instead. She thought she was presentable enough, but Ruby was usually dressed for just hanging around town or at the beach, ever since she'd appointed herself Weiss's official guide to Vale. This was the first time she'd ever even visited Vale's peninsula, which was explicitly marked on every modern map as the Aristocratic District. 'Fancy' didn't really do the place justice.

The intercom crackled to life, startling her. _"Terribly sorry about the delay," _a pleasant male voice said. _"State your name and business, please."_

"Oh, uh," Ruby held what she hoped was the right button down, "that's okay! I'm Ruby Rose Quartz—or, uh, I guess technically I'm Ruby Xiao Long but no one actually calls me that—"

"_Ah!"_ said the voice on the other end of the line. _"You're Miss Schnee's young friend, aren't you? Yes; I see you match her description."_

Ruby looked around, and this time she noticed the cameras on either side of the gate. Both were pointed squarely at her.

"_The young mistress is in today," _the voice went on. _"Here for a visit, I take it?"_

"If she's available, yes please!"

"_Her schedule is clear. Come on through."_

The gate buzzed and swung open. Ruby squared her shoulders and passed through, walking up the driveway and then stepping up onto the flagstone path set around the miniature cul-de-sac in front of the house itself. There was a fountain in the centre that was almost certainly called a water feature. Ornamental hedges framed the manicured lawn like soldiers lined up for inspection, neatly squared-off and regimented. When she reached the front door—front _doors, _she realised once she was in front of them—the left-hand door opened to reveal an immaculately attired man with a moustache. He was only slightly taller than Ruby, balding, freckled, and with a figure that was stocky verging on portly.

_It's a real live butler! _Ruby clamped her lips together to hide her delight, only a small, stifled squeal escaping her. Either the butler didn't notice, or had politely declined to do so.

"Welcome, Miss Rose Quartz. Or do you prefer Miss Xiao Long?"

"Um, just Ruby is fine. Please."

"Miss Ruby." The butler stepped aside and bowed, gesturing for her to enter. "Please, come in."

Ruby stepped over the threshold, then hesitated. "Is—is it okay if he comes in, too? He's super well-behaved, I promise."

The butler paused in the act of closing the door, a puzzled expression flitting across his face before the professional blandness returned. He peered outside and gasped.

"Oh my _goodness _yes he can!" he exclaimed, clearing his throat as he brought his upper body back inside and pulled the door wide again, tucking an arm behind his back formally. "That is to say, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't. I can't imagine Miss Schnee will complain, and this is, after all, _her _household."

"Oh, thank you. C'mere, boy," Ruby urged, beckoning. Zwei made a soft _chuff_ sound in the back of his throat and trotted into the foyer, looking around with interest Ruby couldn't quite share. It was certainly a very tall room, but it was done entirely in stark white and pale shades of blue and grey that made her eyes gloss right over all the impressive bits. It was like a cross between a hospital room and a hotel lobby.

"And just who is this fine fellow?" the butler asked as the corgi trundled over to him and sat, cocking his head.

"We're calling him Zwei."

The butler chuckled, bending down and patting the corgi's head. "Well, hello to you, Zwei." He straightened. "I am Klein Sieben, Miss Weiss Schnee's butler. Miss Schnee is currently engaging in a bit of sport in the fencing _salon_ with the lieutenant. If you would follow me, I will take you to her."

Ruby followed him dutifully up the grand staircase, Zwei close at her heels. "Who's…the lieutenant?" she asked when they reached the top, turning down the left-hand hallway.

"Lieutenant Winter Schnee is the eldest scion of the Schnee family."

She took a moment to process that. "Weiss has a _sister?"_

"Indeed. She also has a brother, young Master Whitley. He is not here presently. The lieutenant, however, is staying with us during her leave. Through here. For safety's sake, please wait until a touch is called."

Klein opened a door and gestured her through, following her inside. A soft, metallic clattering noise like a whisk bouncing off the side of a bowl caught Ruby's ears. She was standing in a long room lined with windows. Here, unlike the rest of the house, the floor was parquet, not stone, which deadened the footfalls as two masked figures in white crossed slender swords. Weiss—easily identifiable by her shorter stature and the ponytail fountaining from the back of her mask—broke away and leapt back, narrowly parrying a strike from her opponent as she pursued. Weiss twisted her wrist, directing the point of her opponent's weapon away and darting in with her own sword. Just before the point made contact, the blade bending, her opponent's sword swept in and struck her edge-on on her back.

"Touch!" barked a woman's voice, overlapping with Weiss's own triumphant exclamation. Both fencers froze in place, then relaxed, lowering their weapons and backing away.

"You made contact first," Weiss said in a more subdued tone, changing to a reverse grip on her weapon as she reached up and removed her mask, tucking it beneath her arm. "Good match."

"You're still underutilising the edge of the blade," Winter chided her, mirroring her sister's actions. Her features were sharper, more severe than Weiss's, her narrower cheekbones giving her face an oval shape that contrasted Weiss's broader, heart-shaped one. But even at a distance, their relation was unmistakable. "You're too used to the limitations of the foil. You also overextended your lunge, exposing your back. Left-handedness gives your guard an incredible advantage against most opponents. You can't let it become something they can exploit."

Weiss flinched briefly before deliberately straightening her shoulders, setting her jaw. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Be better." Winter's eyes flicked past her sister and landed on Ruby. "It seems you have a guest."

Weiss turned swiftly, eyebrows lifting in surprise, and Ruby waved enthusiastically. "Sorry! I was going to say something, but Klein said it might not be safe, and then you two were talking. Should I have clapped? I kind of wanted to clap, but I wasn't sure. I didn't know you knew how to swordfight! That's so cool!"

"Fence," Weiss said weakly. "I _fence._ Why are—? I mean, I didn't know you were coming over today."

Ruby blinked, taken aback. "O-oh. But…we texted about it a few days ago. You invited me over for yesterday but I was going to be on a mission with the Gems, so you said I should come by when we got back…I thought?"

Weiss's eyes went wide. "Oh…"

"It would seem my arrival the day _before _yesterday disrupted my sister's schedule," Winter said, striding forward. She walked past a small rack with two pairs of differently-shaped fencing swords already hanging from it, thrusting her own weapon into place on it with barely a glance, and came to stand beside Weiss. "It is customary to introduce your guests to one another, Weiss."

"Yes! Of course! Ruby, uh, this is my older sister Winter. Schnee. Obviously." She cleared her throat softly. "Winter, this is Ruby Rose Quartz. She is…my friend."

Winter held out her hand; relieved to find herself on solid footing, Ruby shook it firmly. "It's nice to meet you, Winter. Um. Can I call you Winter?"

There was a longer pause than Ruby had really hoped for before she replied, "You may," and cast another expectant look towards Weiss, who started.

"Klein," Weiss said abruptly, "I believe you were preparing a light tea for us. Would you please see that there is enough for three, and serve us in the small parlour?"

"There will certainly be enough, Miss Schnee. I shall give you time to freshen up, then bring it up immediately."

"Thank you."

Klein gave a shallow bow in acknowledgement. "Of course. Miss Ruby, if you will be so good as to accompany me, I will show you to the parlour."

"One moment," Winter commanded. She turned her head in a deliberate, almost exaggerated fashion, looking down at Zwei. "Is this _your _dog, Ruby Rose Quartz?"

"Yes," Ruby squeaked. _What is it with this family and my full name?_

Weiss gasped as she finally noticed her four-footed guest. "He's—"

"I know," Ruby began.

"—_adorable!"_ She crouched, setting her mask down on the floor and reaching out towards Zwei, scratching behind one of his ears.

"Right!?" Ruby enthused, kneeling and petting down his back.

"He's pink," Winter said flatly.

"That too," Weiss conceded, sounding quite distracted. "Oh my goodness! Oh who's a good dog. Issit you? Yes it is! Yes it _is!"_

"I see more red than pink," Ruby demurred. "Like a kind of lightish red, sort of a salmon-y, coral-y type colour."

"…Klein," said Winter, "I will be ready for tea in ten minutes. I am confident Weiss will be ready as well."

Klein pressed his lips together, suppressing a chuckle into a wide smile. "Of course, Lieutenant."

* * *

"So you are…half-Gem," Winter repeated, sitting still and straight, her face and voice both totally neutral.

"Yep."

"You have been raised, collaboratively, by your human father and three Gems, two of whom were high-ranking members of the Rose Rebellion, the leader of which was your mother."

"Mmhm."

"Ruby, don't 'mmhm' my sister," Weiss hissed. Somehow, although Weiss was ostensibly the head of household, she and Ruby had ended up sitting side by side on a small, elegant couch—a 'loveseat', apparently—while Winter sat in an armchair angled opposite them. Dressed immaculately in white capris and a midnight-blue halter top, a diamond tennis bracelet looped around one wrist, she looked like an enthroned queen. Her hair was no longer pinned in a twist at the back of her head but instead coiled elegantly atop it in an updo her fencing mask wouldn't have accommodated: a sleek white crown that only served to enhance the impression that she was some higher authority sitting in judgement over them. Or maybe over Zwei, perched between them and listing towards Weiss as she continued to absently massage his head.

"And you met when…?"

Weiss spoke up. "I lost my scrunchie at the ferry port on Patch after visiting Signal to submit my enrolment paperwork. Ruby found it and gave it back to me."

"After we fought a giant bird monster," Ruby chimed in. "Ouch!"

Weiss smoothly slid her leg back into place, crossing her ankles daintily. "There was a brief, monster-related diversion. We rendezvoused with Ruby's Hunting contacts and executed a tactical retreat once it was clear they were able to contain the situation."

"I see," Winter said.

"You can talk _soldier," _Ruby said reverently, beaming at Weiss. "Ooh, we should get walkie-talkies!"

"Is this a typical example of your excursions?" Winter inquired, her expression edging out of neutrality towards disapproval.

"No," Weiss assured her, overlapping with Ruby's "Eh."

"There have been no more monster incidents," Weiss said firmly. "Incident-free outings only. Safe and normal activities in safe and normal locations."

Winter's gaze lingered on her for a moment, then locked on Ruby, who widened her eyes and pointed both of her index fingers at Weiss.

"And…the dog."

"An incident-plentiful outing that did not involve Weiss in any way! Because she was here with you!"

"Wait." Weiss frowned. "You found him on that mission?"

Ruby brightened. "Oh, yeah! We didn't actually go that far. Just out to Forever Fall. Qrow was looking over some of the data from the old sensor network and he found this weird radiation pattern that only certain kinds of Gem tech give off. The Gems were betting it was some leftover piece of equipment kinda like the sensors themselves, or maybe an old artefact that got lost in the Gem War, so we went to try and find it and see what it was and why it turned itself back on…"

* * *

"Whoa…" Ruby turned a full three-sixty, stumbling a little as she tried to do it without halting her forward movement—wouldn't do to let the others think she couldn't keep up. But the Forest of Forever Fall was _gorgeous, _sunlight filtering through leaves in dozens of shades of redand dappling the ruddy undergrowth in shadow. "How have I never been here before?"

"It's not the safest place this side of the Divide," Qrow said, scanning the trees as if he expected something to jump out at them even as he spoke. But his posture was relaxed, and there was no sign of the crease that usually appeared between his eyes when he was being extra-serious. "Things get drawn here. Some good, some bad, most neither. All dangerous, at least to organics."

"Way to bring the mood down, Birb-man," Yang complained. She stretched, crossing her arms behind her head and glancing back at Ruby nonchalantly. "Don't listen to him. Nothing _that _bad has ever gone down here."

"Oh, no," Qrow drawled. "Just the last, most brutal battle of the whole damn rebellion, no big deal."

"I meant _recently, _Qrow, gawd. See, now I look like a massive jerk."

Ruby, meanwhile, had slowed to a stop. "This was a battlefield?" she asked quietly, her hand hovering over her Gemstone.

Qrow and Yang halted as well, glancing at each other. "'Fraid so, kiddo," Qrow said, looking solemn as they turned around to face her.

"There's still…weapons and things," Yang added, shifting her weight as if uncomfortable. "And…shards. Gem shards. Most of it's buried by now, but keep an eye out, okay? No impaling yourself!" The Ametrine grinned awkwardly, the expression faltering after a moment.

"You said things were drawn here. Is that why?"

Qrow nodded, and this time, as his eyes swept over the forest, his gaze seemed distant. Like he was seeing something besides the picturesque woodland that had so enchanted Ruby. "This whole place was a wasteland when the fighting ended," he said softly. "You'd swear nothing had ever been alive here or would be again. When it was all over and Summer got a good look at what was left…and everyone we'd lost…" He shook his head. "I thought she'd never stop crying."

"But it did grow back," Ruby prompted. "It…" She frowned. "It wasn't like this before, was it? Red, I mean."

"Sure wasn't." Qrow smiled crookedly. "We came back years later just shocked that _anything _was growing, let alone the start of a whole forest in Rose Quartz colours. Even Summer didn't expect it. Far as I know, no one with her Gem type ever tried using any kind of healing power on anything other than another Gem."

"Best guess I ever heard asking around was maybe Rose Quartzes were meant to be combat medics and your mom was OP at healing," Yang said with a shrug. "I know I sure can't fix things by crying on 'em, but I saw Summer patch up plenty of cracked Gemstones that way."

"But the whole _forest? _It's half the size of _Vale!"_

"Maybe it got into the groundwater or something. I look like a hydrologist to you?"

"You don't look like someone who knows what a hydrologist is," Yang declared immediately; Qrow made a face.

"I don't know what a hydrologist is," Ruby protested.

"That's 'cause you're thirteen and also because you're cool," Yang assured her. "Not that being a giant nerd is a bad thing, I mean, hey, we've all got our niche to fill and glasses are sexy."

"_There _you all are," Ozpin's voice broke in.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Most of the time," she added.

Ruby couldn't quite tell if Ozpin's tone had been exasperated or relieved, and it along with his expression had settled into wry by the time he came into view, cane in one hand and collapsed scroll in the other. "You could have let me know if you needed a rest," he commented.

"I am made of the same stuff you are, old man," Yang shot back.

"Eh…" The token Pearl of the group wobbled his hand uncertainly, not looking terribly bothered.

"Declaring yourself a silicate is about as impressive as an organic pointing out they have skin," Ozpin said rather dubiously, "but you aren't _wrong, _I suppose.

She groaned. "Could you _be _more pedantic?"

He tilted his head thoughtfully. "I could also point out that I am not, strictly speaking, a man."

Yang cackled. "Not touching that."

"Good," Qrow said with a smirk, "'cause he just admitted there's nothing to touch."

"_Qrow."_

"What? You were all smug about it a few seconds ago. Look at you, all removed from material concerns. Maybe you'd have noticed us falling behind if you paid attention to something other than your scroll for once," Qrow needled him.

"Yes, very funny," Ozpin droned. "I'd offer to let you take the lead, but the last time you were put in charge of the scanner you got side-tracked arguing with Yang and led us in circles for _five hours."_

Qrow set his jaw stoically. "I work best alone," he declared, grim and gruff.

Yang scoffed. "No, you don't. Either you get bored and end up calling someone to talk the whole time or it's total radio silence and you're all weird and clingy when you get back."

"I do _recon _work best alone," Qrow amended. "I am the lone wolf of recon."

"Don't you do most of your scouting in bird-form?" Ruby asked, grinning.

"I am a solitary recon eagle!"

"Qrow."

"Yeah?"

"_Crow,"_ Ozpin repeated carefully, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. Qrow stared him down in silence for a beat, disbelief flickering over his face before snuffing out, leaving resignation in its wake; conversely, Ozpin's smile only widened under the scrutiny.

"That's it," Qrow growled. "I hate all of you."

Yang laughed triumphantly, punching her fists together. "Pleasure working with you, gentlegems!"

Ozpin twirled the hand that held his scroll, sketching a shallow bow.

"I hate you most," Qrow told him. "I just decided."

"Well, if you're that bothered, you can always lone-crow it up there instead."

Qrow sneered, but even Ruby could see it was threatening to turn into a smile; he always seemed to get a kick out of it when Ozpin actually played along. "Maybe I will." His limbs shimmered curiously in the way that they did before he changed form.

"Or!" Ruby lunged forward, wrapping her arms around one of his; he grunted in surprise, the shimmering fading away. "We could all just…stick together! On the ground!"

(Over Ruby's head, where she couldn't see, Ozpin looked at her in concern and then at Qrow, tilting his head just slightly in question. Qrow pressed his lips together and nodded, once, and Ozpin closed his eyes, looking momentarily pained.)

"Come now, my dear," Ozpin said to Qrow in a light, conciliatory tone. "I don't mean to chase you off. Surely you've a thicker skin than that?"

"Weren't you the one pointing out we don't have skin? But hey, if you're gonna make nice, I guess I can keep my pseudo-skin the way it is for now."

"Eurgh," Yang shuddered. "All in favour of us never using the phrase _pseudo-skin _again?"

"_Please,"_ Ruby voted, releasing Qrow and stepping away in an awkward half-shuffle.

"Seconded."

"Oh sure, the guy who regularly crams sugar into a purpose-made digestive system he doesn't need is grossed out by biology," Qrow scoffed. "That's rich."

"Qrow, I'm _human _and _I _thought something was gross about the way you said it," Ruby pointed out.

"C'mon, Rubes, let's leave the buzzkill brigade to their bit—bickering," Yang corrected as Ozpin shot her a pointed glance. "Gimme that scanner," she urged, reaching out her hand and flexing her fingers. "Me'n Ruby are gonna run point for a bit."

"Yes," Ruby whispered, pumping her fist.

Ozpin _tsked _as he handed over his scroll. "You know, you could use your own if you would let me—"

"My scroll is a communication device slash portable video player. I don't need you to jailbreak it into a weird super-spy pocket computer. Just fill it up with boring, responsible junk anyway." She pressed the release, frowning incredulously as the screen loaded. "I mean, what is all this? When have you ever needed a…'materials analysis' app? Don't you have a whole bunch of scientist nerd-buddies with actual machines for that kind of thing?"

"Perhaps when we find the source of the radiation signature we're supposedly tracking," Ozpin suggested dryly as he reached out and tapped one of the icons that seemed to have Yang perplexed. "And while I prefer to employ more thorough methods of investigation, any data is better than no data. Now, you're watching the bar second from left. Once it's over the blue line, we're close. If it climbs over the red line, we're _too _close for Ruby's safety."

"Heard, don't irradiate Ruby!"

"I'd be mad, but I already have superpowers," Ruby conceded with a cheerful shrug.

"Onward, Team Awesome! Later, olds," Yang waved, raising Ozpin's scroll and walking on. Ruby had to jog a few paces to catch up with her.

"Don't go too far ahead, _kids!" _Qrow called.

"Won't be a problem if you keep up, _gramps!"_

"Really just an astounding display of maturity all around," Ozpin muttered. "So happy to be spending eternity with these people. Could have moved back in with Oobleck but _no, _we _need _you, she said, we're _family, _she said…"

* * *

"And this all leads to the pink dog how, exactly?" Winter interrupted. Zwei whined softly as if in response—though that might have had more to do with the fact that Weiss had stopped petting him.

"Forever Fall is a Gem battlefield," the younger Schnee sister stated, stunned. "It's a—I have a _painting _of that forest in my room, I—there's all kinds of stories and—!"

"Weiss, you're babbling and you're slouching. Sit up straight and offer us more tea. It's going cold."

She started. "O-of course! Ruby, do you want…?"

"Yes, please," said Ruby, holding out her cup. "I like this. It's really nice and sweet."

"That would be all the sugar you're adding," Weiss observed as Ruby plunked cube after cube into her cup and finally stirred, the spoon clattering loudly against the porcelain. "Winter?"

Winter placed her cup within Weiss's reach. "Thank you. Ruby, you have not answered my question. Please explain what your story has to do with your dog."

"I told you," Ruby said, her brow wrinkling in confusion. "I found him on that mission, so I was telling you about the mission. Zwei just hadn't shown up yet by the part you cut me off at."

"The part at which I cut you off," said Winter.

"Yeah, that's what I said."

"I was correcting your grammar."

Ruby paused. "Zwei had not yet shown up by the part at which you cut me off _from speaking further."_ She smiled. "Now it doesn't end with a preposition."

Weiss froze. Winter stilled. Then, for the first time, Ruby saw the corner of the lieutenant's lips curve up in the faintest hint of a smile.

"Quite correct," she said smoothly. "Please, go on."

Weiss's eyes went wide, just briefly; then Ruby watched as her shoulders relaxed and her spine made an almost imperceptible shift from stiff to merely straight. She looked properly calm for the first time since Ruby had arrived.

"Well…" Ruby sat back with her teacup, taking a moment to enjoy the thawing atmosphere in the room. "Once Yang and Qrow were done going at each other, me an—Yang and I kinda talked for awhile until we got close enough to the source of the radiation to really start looking…"

* * *

"—so then this creep gets all up in my face, only he's not looking at my _face, _you know, and he—whoa ssssh_haha, _that's a spike!" Yang declared, eyebrows shooting up almost as fast as the indicator bar on Ozpin's scroll had.

"Which way?" Ruby asked, peering around her at the screen.

Yang waved the device in an arc in front of her, stopping where the bar was tallest. "Thataway. Gentlemen!" she called. "We have officially crossed the _thin blue line."_

"Not what that means!" Qrow called back.

"May I?" Ozpin asked from directly behind them, causing Ruby and Yang both to jump.

"Would you _stop that?" _Yang demanded, handing over the scroll. "Make some noise next time. Step on a twig. Walk a little heavier, for crying out loud. You're huge. Move like it."

"Why should I be louder when you could be more observant? You've known me for four thousand years. I shouldn't be able to startle you so consistently."

"What about me, though?" Ruby pleaded weakly.

Ozpin (conveniently, Ruby thought) failed to hear her, tapping at his scroll and frowning. "Nothing old enough to be lost in Forever Fall should be giving off such strong readings when it's still too far-off for us to see."

"Maybe it's really small?" Yang suggested as Qrow joined them, stepping up next to Ruby and peering over Ozpin's shoulder.

The Demantoid tilted his head in concession, though the set of his mouth still indicated dissatisfaction. "Qrow, is the tree cover light enough for you to scout?"

He looked around, clearly dubious. "Not as anything that can't brachiate."

Yang clenched her hands into fists, grinning. "Mon-key Qrow! Mon-key Qrow!"

"Screw that, you can shift too. C'mon, let's see your best lemur."

"Ooh, red panda! Do a red panda!" Ruby urged.

Yang gasped in exaggerated delight. "The most adorable arboreal."

"Wea-sel Yang, wea-sel Yang," Qrow chanted softly.

"Mustelid," Ozpin corrected him absently, tapping at his scroll. "What I wouldn't give for a functioning satellite…no matter. We should fan out. Ruby, take this. Remember, if that bar clears the red line—"

"You'll be Ruby_ infra-_red!"

"—I realise you're joking, but that doesn't actually make sense. She already emits low levels of infrared radiation, she isn't red, and it would require a concentrated dose of _ultraviolet _radiation to make her so."

Yang shrugged. "So that one was a little off, but come on. My puns have a pretty low frequency of failure. Oof, you're ion me pretty hard for that one. Maybe I should try something new, _clear_-ly nothing on this spectrum is hitting the mark."

Ozpin observed her in silence.

"It's like a train wreck," Qrow whispered to Ruby, who had her free hand pressed to her lips to stifle the giggles. "I can't look away."

"Relax," Yang told Ozpin. "I'm just havin' muon."

"I don't think radiation jokes are quite your métier," Ozpin informed her solemnly. "Maybe we should photon a new theme."

"Ayy!" Yang cheered. "Now we're cookin' with microwaves!"

"Damn it, it's spreading," Qrow groaned. "Be careful, Ruby. Keep an eye on the readout, but don't forget to pay attention to what's around you. Call us if you run into trouble." He clapped a hand heavily on her shoulder and walked off into the forest, hands in his pockets.

"Will do," Ruby managed through a last snicker, looking down at Ozpin's scroll before picking her trajectory along the far edge of the stretch they were searching, leaving Ozpin and Yang to make up the middle spokes.

"For real though," she heard behind her, "stay in your lane, old man."

"That's an odd way to pronounce 'thank you for interrupting, I was running out of material'."

"The hell I was!"

"Fine. You have until we regroup to figure out what to do with 'gamma' and 'meson'—_without _unrealistic misuse of object pronouns."

"Unrealistic, huh? You _will _regret leaving me that loophole…"

The sounds of their bickering faded as Ruby trekked deeper into her designated patch of forest, doing her best to split her attention between the scroll and the ever-shifting vista of trees. The fallen leaves under her feet had a waxy feel to them, more like oak leaves than the papery texture of the maple leaves that carpeted Patch every autumn, and it made the footing slightly slippery in places where multiple layers of them had accumulated. They slid easily against one another, rather than shredding or crumpling as Ruby expected.

"Leaf slide," she mused to herself, envisioning it: summertime sledding, if she could only find a good slope. Maybe there'd be something further inland and closer to Beacon, where the elevation was higher. She'd bet Yang would be willing to help her look for a good spot.

Noticing the bar starting to fall, Ruby steered a little more to her right, pushing it back to the point where it had plateaued off in Yang's hands. Whatever was causing the radiation was putting it out pretty consistently over this area; the readings on Ozpin's scroll probably wouldn't change dramatically unless Ruby was right on top of the thing.

_Well, if it turns out to be something dangerous, at least I'm always armed now._

She walked on, bobbling her head gently along with the tune playing inside her head. She kind of wished she'd brought her headphones, but, well, she _was _supposed to be searching. And, she realised, she'd been sent off _alone._ The Gems had trusted her to pull her weight! Sure, it wasn't a _hunt, _but it was still a mission! It counted. Ruby grinned, her gait becoming more of a strut. The strut proved unsustainable, so it became a skip instead. And soon enough the skipping was full-fledged dancing, or, well, more of a still-fledging shimmy, really, but there was a beat and she stomped and hopped and jammed to it with everything she had.

Then her foot caught a patch of layered leaves and slid out from under her, pitching her forward onto the forest floor.

"Oh no!"

The wind knocked right out of her as she caught herself on her forearms, narrowly saving her nose from a rude introduction to a gnarled old tree root. After a frozen moment, she sucked in a deep breath, the pounding in her ears receding as her body wound down from red alert.

"No one saw that, right?" she asked aloud. No way Yang could resist replying if she heard.

"Oh good," she sighed as a few seconds ticked by with no response. Rolling onto her back, she scowled down at her feet. "Your repeated betrayals have not gone unnoticed, _hiking shoes. _Oh, _ew."_ She'd just spotted the dirt streaked on her elbows and knees, crumbles of loam and crushed dry leaf clinging to her shirt, shorts and the tops of her socks. And now it would be all over her back, too. At least her cloak was resistant to this kind of thing. _Should probably freshen it up when I get home just in case…_

"Alright, let's go," she muttered, rolling over once again and bracing her hands against the ground in preparation to push herself up. In doing so, she found herself face to furry face with an unexpected audience.

"_Gah!"_

The corgi blinked. Then it licked her nose. Ruby scrunched up her face, recoiling in surprise; a startled laugh broke out of her.

"Okay. What're you doing here, little guy?" She pushed herself away from the ground, leaning back until she was kneeling. "I guess you live here," she realised, reaching out and running a tentative hand over the corgi's fur, which was somewhere between a rosy pink and a pale, bluish red. Picking up a couple of fallen leaves, she held them against his fur; one was much too orangey, but the other was a close match. "Now how did that happen? Did Mom turn you red somehow? You'd have to be a pretty old pupper to have hung out with her."

Ruby pulled back abruptly, dropping the leaves and planting her hands on her knees as she watched the dog warily. "Unless you're a Gem? Because you gotta tell me if you're a Gem in a dog body, or looking like a dog, or whatever, and I'm not petting you again until I know."

The dog watched her blankly for a moment. Then it presented first one flank, still watching her, then another, and finally threw itself down on its side and rolled onto its back, presenting his belly.

"Okay, that is an all-clear on the Gemstone front. You're a smart boy, aren't you? Or maybe you just wanted belly rubs," Ruby reflected, in which case she was presently giving him exactly what he wanted.

A brisk chime caught her attention: Ozpin's scroll, half-buried in leaves. It must have flown out of her grasp when she'd fallen.

"Oh shoot!" Ruby shot to her feet and stepped around the corgi, picking up the scroll and brushing it off, inspecting it carefully. The hard-light screen flickered worryingly for a moment, but Ruby caught sight of a touch of dirt near one of the projectors and blew sharply across the back of the screen, dislodging it; the hardware itself was unharmed, and the display quickly unscrambled itself. The readout bar she'd been focusing on had fallen to a much lower level, and a message window was superimposed on the graph.

**QROW 3:53 PM**

Ruby: Yang tried your scroll, got no  
response. Found the thing. Yang  
and Oz broke the thing. Much  
wailing, gnashing of teeth, denial.  
Regroup navpoint

"Whoops," Ruby muttered, digging her own scroll out of her pocket.

**YANG 3:47 PM**

We got it! And Oz broke the crap  
out of it lol TT^TT he's so lowkey  
pissed rn. Makin that one face u  
know it. Meet up w/ us ASAP  
navpoint

**3:54 PM**

Qrow says you broke it tho?

**YANG 3:54 PM**

BITCH IS LYING

**3:55 PM**

k but he says you AND Oz  
both own this one

**YANG 3:55 PM**

bitch is half-lying

A soft whine distracted Ruby. The corgi had wandered over from its supine position and was now sitting at her feet, gazing up at her imploringly.

"Oh, you're all alone here," Ruby whispered sadly. The corgi's eyes somehow grew even bigger, glossy as if with unshed tears. "Aw. Poor baby…!"

**3:56 PM**

Yang I'm omw and DO NOT  
RELAY NEXT TEXT

I need help smuggling a doggo  
into the house

also out of the woods and onto  
the boat to get to the island  
where the house is nbd

She snapped a quick picture of the corgi's sad, adorable face and sent it for good measure, labelling it _DOGGO! :(_

**YANG **** 3:57 PM**

!

omg

u found a technicolor doggo

one condition

**3:57 PM**

?

**YANG 3:57 PM**

Naming rights

**3:57 PM**

!?

**YANG 3:57 PM**

I'mma name it

Ruby made a worried noise in the back of her throat, but another look at the corgi convinced her.

**3:58 PM**

nnnnngh deal

nothing stupid though!

**YANG 3:58 PM**

Ruby

bb

who you talkin to?

* * *

"And that's how I met Zwei!" Ruby declared proudly, setting her scroll down beside the tea tray with a definitive _thwack._

"Excuse me?" Winter asked, staring her down.

"That's the _whole story?"_ her sister asked in a much sharper tone.

"Yeah? I went to a forest and I found a magic dog so I brought him home. I wasn't sure what the pet policy was but I figured Yang would be up for helping me get him in the door and once he was there I didn't think anyone would care enough to matter if he stayed. See? The whole story. I mean, I guess I could have just told you _that, _now that I'm…thinking about it…sorry!" Ruby rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, giving a nervous smile.

Weiss's incredulity ratcheted up a notch. "What do you mean, _magic _dog? Is _magic _a thing now?"

"And what about the device the Gems recovered?" Winter demanded. "What was it? How did it break? Was it a threat?"

"Whoa!" Ruby held up her hands. "I thought you guys just wanted me to hurry up and get to the part about Zwei?"

"Well—yes," Winter said, looking for the first time a touch discomfited, as if Ruby had caught her off-guard.

"O-obviously!" Weiss agreed, flushing.

Ruby's eyes tracked between them slowly. "Well…there's still what happened once we got him home."

* * *

"Look, don't keep beating yourself up about it—"

"Like you beat up that machine!"

"—and Yang, maybe _start _beating yourself up a little, 'cause Oz may have broke the chassis but he sure didn't set the damn _core _on fire!" Qrow snapped.

"Hey, I was backing up my teammate! I kind of just assume you guys don't hit stuff that doesn't need to be hit!"

"Oh, enough," Ozpin said wearily, switching on the living room light and depositing the broken mess of machinery onto the coffee table.

"Naw, it's cool," Yang assured him, her demeanour shifting abruptly from defensive to self-satisfied. "We're home, so I can stop distracting you."

"Dis—Yang, where's Ruby?" Qrow asked flatly.

"Snuck in the back door," Ozpin reported in a monotone. "On the couch now. Dog."

"…Dog?"

"Dog," Ruby confirmed.

"Everyone," Yang announced, flopping down next to Ruby and gesturing grandly at the dog on her lap, "this is Zwei."

"Why Zwei?" asked Ruby.

"Because Ein is too impersonal and Drei feels like bragging." Yang shrugged. "Plus every time it rained you'd just be lying."

"The dog is pink," Ozpin stated, expressionless.

"Whuh-oh, monosyllables." Yang elbowed Ruby, grinning. "Last time I saw him like this was when he found out Summer was pregnant with you. Someone _really _doesn't know what to do about small life forms popping up outta nowhere."

"Why. Is the dog pink."

"Dude, I just said: Summer. Probably. Iunno, things turning weird shades of red and pink usually has _something _to do with a Rose Quartz, right?" Suddenly Yang beamed, looking positively angelic. "I'm sure there's a good _meson _behind it. Gamma-tically correct enough for you? …Okay, I'll cop to having _gamma-tically _queued up, but you set it up to work no matter what it followed that's on you."

Ozpin failed to react.

"Damn it. Okay, you guys are my witnesses when he snaps out of it. Boom! I win! Thank you, pinky-pupper," she crooned, cupping Zwei's face.

"I still see red," Ruby admitted, shaking her head. "Don't know where you guys are getting pink from."

"Summer Rose-red," Qrow agreed softly, leaning over the back of the couch to peer closer at Zwei, who saw him and rolled onto his back, suspended now between Ruby's lap and Yang's. The Ametrine squealed in delight and set to work scritching at his chest, fingers vanishing in the poof of vibrant fur there. Qrow reached down tentatively and patted him, a tiny smile creeping onto his face.

Ozpin was silent, nodding slightly to himself. After a moment, something inside his head seemed to reboot, and he sighed. "We have a dog now, don't we?"

"Surrender to the inevitable, Ozpin," Ruby said in a strangely menacing voice.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just…keep him out of my workroom. And try to keep the fur levels bearable. Please."

"_Fur levels,"_ Qrow mocked, smirking. "And vanity rears its ugly head. Don't worry. We won't let the little guy go nesting in your scarf collection."

"You'd best not. Yang, considering we're both responsible for how this mission turned out, you're on kitchen detail while I try to see what I can get out of these scraps. It's clearly Gem tech, but I didn't recognise the design," he mused, voice growing softer as he trailed off into thought. "Perhaps one of Merlot's later works…?"

"Ungh, _cooking,"_ Yang groaned.

"I can do it myself," Ruby offered, faintly embarrassed; she was, after all, the only one who actually needed to eat.

"_No," _all three Gems responded in unison.

"We all love you, Ruby, but the kitchen is the one place Little Miss Pyro is _less _likely to burn down the house than you are," said Qrow, shooting Yang a dubious look.

Yang opened her mouth to retort, but Ruby's yelp cut her off. They all froze, staring at the point where Ruby's arm had just vanished elbow-deep into Zwei's majestic chest-floof. Zwei lifted his head to look at Ruby, whuffling inquisitively.

"Is…this," Ozpin said at length, pointing gingerly, "another dog thing no one told me about?"

"Nnnnope," Yang assured him, transfixed.

An anxious, high-pitched whining noise worked its way out of Ruby.

* * *

"Yeah, so we really have no idea how or why I can do this," Ruby admitted, one arm half-disappeared in Zwei's chest fur. The Schnee sisters looked horrified. "Really freaked me out at first. It's cool, though! I mean, obviously I can pull it back out again." She demonstrated. "And when you think about it, it's pretty useful, 'cause like, my dog is _also _a super-cool backpack! Watch-watch-watch!"

She picked up her scroll and reached back into Zwei's floof, then withdrew her arm and showed off her empty hand. "Ta-da!"

"Okay, I am coming around to the idea that this is more intriguing than horrific," Weiss said, nodding slowly.

Ruby beamed. "I knew you'd get it! And now I just reach in and…"

"Are you alright, Winter?" Weiss asked, glancing over at her sister.

"Yes," Winter said stiffly, watching Ruby root around in the pocket dimension inside her pet dog. Zwei, for his part, seemed unbothered, sitting straight and still while he waited for her to be done. "Thank you, I am quite well."

"Huh." Ruby frowned. "What in the…?"

She pulled her arm out slowly. She held a small binder in her hand, bound in yellow fabric.

Weiss leaned over. "Is that…a photo album?"

"…Yeah," Ruby said softly, flipping through it. "It. It's Mom and Dad. Together. I didn't know there were so many pictures of them." One of her hands crept up and cupped her Gemstone.

"They look so happy," Weiss murmured. "Not like…some people. They must have really loved each other."

Almost gingerly, Winter stood, walking around to stand behind the loveseat. "I recognise that building. It's Meerwache Hall."

"Right!" Weiss realised. "Near the old Houses of Parliament in Mantle."

"And that's Lake Matsu, the southern shore. See the floating islands? The area's rich in Gravity Dust."

"Oh, I know this one!" Ruby pointed. "It's the old opera house, down in the historic district, from before they built that bigger one up here in…I don't actually know, I stopped paying attention, architecture isn't really my thing but someone told me about it at some point!"

"Dr. Oobleck?" Weiss guessed.

"Might've been his housemate, actually. I need to introduce you to them someday, they're cool. Well—okay, _cool _isn't the right word. I like them?"

"These photos are from all over the world," Winter observed. "Your parents were very well-travelled."

"Yeah. Dad's told me stories, but…this is the first time I've seen any of these photos. Guess that clinches Zwei having something to do with Mom, huh?" She stifled a sniffle, rubbing her nose self-consciously. "Why would you hide something like this inside a dog, though…?"

"We could go," Weiss said suddenly; at the sudden attention from Ruby and Winter, she blushed. "I-I mean, some of these were taken here in Vale. We could go. To see where they took the pictures. O-or you could, on your own; I'm sure you'd like some privacy to—!"

Ruby left the album in her lap and threw her arms around Weiss, squishing Zwei in the middle. Once again, the corgi seemed unbothered, merely wriggling until his view of the room was unobstructed.

"I'm sorry!" Ruby exclaimed almost immediately, pulling back. "I just realised we might not be hugging friends yet."

"Is 'hugging friends' a formal category?" Weiss asked, still quite red.

"I don't actually know," Ruby admitted. "I've known most of my friends since I was born."

Zwei looked up at Winter and whined. She nodded down at him sympathetically.

"Then I suppose we are," Weiss said primly, smoothing the skirt of her sundress as she recovered her poise. "In limited intervals on appropriate occasions."

"Well, new best hugging friend—"

"Why don't we just shorten that down."

"Well, _bestie—"_

"Not what I meant."

"—would you like to accompany me on a grand tour of my parents' photo spots?" Ruby clasped her hands together.

Weiss's eyes darted towards Winter. "Well…"

"Oh. Right. Duh. Family first," Ruby laughed, reddening a little herself.

"It occurs to me that I haven't visited Vale in quite some time," Winter interjected. "Nor do I usually take the time to look around the city. Perhaps an outing is in order."

"Are you sure?"

"Do you mean it?!"

"I would have said if I was not sure, and I am not in the habit of saying things I do not mean," Winter corrected them both, fixing them with a severe look. "Once we have informed Klein of our departure, we may leave forthwith."

"Let me go get my hat!" Weiss sprang from the loveseat and headed for the door with a rapid, mincing gait that clearly wanted to develop into a run.

Winter frowned. "She doesn't wear hats."

Ruby glanced furtively up at her, closing the album gently. "Guess she does now."

* * *

And so Ruby found herself showing both Schnee sisters around the city. The old opera house was their first stop. It took a bit of trial and error to find the vantage point from which Summer and Taiyang had taken their photo, but once they had, Ruby posed with her arms outstretched and triumphant while Weiss snapped a picture of her with her scroll.

"I could make a whole new album," Ruby realised over dinner at a restaurant whose name she couldn't pronounce. Winter, thankfully, had offered to treat her. An arctic look from the woman was all that had been needed to get Zwei in the door; he sat patiently at Ruby's feet under the table, seeming to vibrate softly as he panted. "If I take pictures at the same spots Mom and Dad did, and then maybe I could show it to Dad. It's kind of like recreating them, right? I mean. Aren't I just the two of them together?"

"Ah," Winter said, as if something had just been clarified for her. "You're a romantic."

"Well, it _is _romantic," Weiss argued, spots of colour appearing high on her cheeks as Winter turned to look at her. "She exists because they loved each other," she pushed on. "It's…it's a nice thought."

Ruby thought she glimpsed an old, buried sadness in Winter's eyes before the elder sister's expression firmed again. "Yes, of course. I was not intending to be derisive. My apologies if it seemed otherwise."

The conversation turned to lighter topics after that, or as light as Winter seemed willing to tolerate (several times she even _smiled, _to the point Ruby thought she might actually get used to seeing it), but Ruby couldn't help but think of that small moment of sadness, of how Weiss had stumbled over her words when she'd mentioned how happy Summer and Tai looked in their photos. She didn't like what she saw when she put those moments together. She hoped she was drawing the wrong connections.

The sun was setting by the time the four of them wrapped up their meal—Zwei having been slipped enough scraps by Weiss and Winter alone to be full twice over, never mind what Ruby had given him—and so they decided on one last destination.

"It looks like the sun's going down in the photo, too," Ruby reasoned, lowering the album and gazing approvingly at the old marble fountain and the brick-laid square surrounding it. "More pigeons, though."

Zwei barked, charging a small cluster of the birds; they took off in a cacophony of wingbeats and alarm calls.

"Alright. Let's get the shot lined up. There, I think," Weiss pointed.

"Actually," Ruby began. "Winter? Would you mind taking a picture of me _and _Weiss?"

Weiss looked briefly shocked, but covered it swiftly. Winter relinquished another rare smile, this one a little softer.

"Not at all," she said, taking Weiss's offered scroll. "Alright…there. Good, now let me know when you're ready."

"Ready," Weiss declared, smiling magazine-perfect.

Ruby hooked an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in. "Ready!"

When Winter snapped the photo, she caught them both beginning to laugh.

"Hardly up to portraiture standards," she observed as she inspected the result, "but I suppose it will do."

"Oh—_hey!" _Weiss held her hat against the crown of her head as one of the birds swooped low. "Stupid pigeon!"

"Not a pigeon," Ruby said, an ominous feeling running down her spine.

"Then _what?"_

"A crow," Qrow said flatly, his winged form dissolving and weaving back together into his humanoid shape. "It's literally my name. What else was I gonna turn into?"

Although she'd seemed quite startled by Qrow's sudden transformation, Winter recovered her composure swiftly. "Ah. So _you're _the Pearl Ruby mentioned." She handed Weiss her scroll back, eyeing Qrow critically. "I admit, I expected a little more…poise."

"Did I skip the part where he and Yang traded juvenile insults for like ten minutes?" Ruby asked Weiss out of the corner of her mouth.

"You did not."

"So, Ruby found another Schnee to hang out with." Qrow returned Winter's gesture with equal prejudice. "Ain't that a kick in the teeth. Still, long as you take after your grandad more than your old man, we shouldn't have any problems."

"You might have asked my first name before attacking me over my last," Winter retorted.

"You're assuming I care." He leaned in, smiling. "You shouldn't do that."

"Hey!" Weiss protested.

"Qrow!" Ruby clenched her hands into fists, glaring. "Don't be a jerk! This is Weiss's sister and she's nice, okay?"

Qrow's eyes never left Winter. "Nice, huh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The nicest you'll ever meet," Winter growled. "First Lieutenant Winter Schnee of the Atlesian Sky Corps."

"Winter Schnee," Qrow repeated. "Double whammy. I'm gonna call you Ice Queen."

"You will call me Lieutenant Schnee," Winter said sharply. _"If _you manage to convince me you're deserving of the respect due a sapient being, I will consider allowing you to call me Winter."

"Mm." Qrow made a show of thinking it over. "Ice Queen it is."

"You _absolute—!"_

"Well, this is going great," Ruby muttered.

"What even just happened?" Weiss wondered. "Everything was fine. She liked you! You liked her! They met literally a minute ago and now they hate each other? _What?"_

Zwei _foof_ed from his post between the two girls, observing the drama impassively.

"So, Ruby," Qrow called, cutting Winter off mid-tirade; now she seethed in silence, clasping her hands tightly behind her back. "Glad to see you're alive. Not carried off by anything or anyone. Dead in a gutter somewhere."

"Uh…" Ruby's eyes narrowed slightly, assessing. "This is the 'why didn't you answer your scroll' speech and the answer is 'because my scroll didn't go off'."

"To be clear, I'm not calling you a liar, I'm just saying we absolutely called you. All of us and your dad, once we made sure you weren't over at his place."

"Oh man." Ruby paled. "How worried is everyone?"

"Concerned but not panicked, in an ascending scale that goes Yang then Oz then Tai. Which, lemme just text them…"

"I don't know how I didn't notice you calling," Ruby fretted. "We've been taking photos on our scrolls all afternoon."

"Playing tour guide?"

"Sort of? I found this in Zwei's floof compartment." She held out the photo album. Qrow took it carefully, flipping it open. He exhaled sharply, looking as if he'd been punched in the gut. But as he tentatively leafed through it, his expression softened.

"Heh. I remember taking some of these. So this is what they did with them." He shook his head. "Y'know, Summer must've been to some of these places a dozen times over the millennia, but she swore up and down they looked different with Tai there. Damn, they were such sappy idiots when they were together."

The stiff set of Winter's shoulders wavered, then slowly relaxed. "Ruby and Weiss are attempting to recreate some of the pictures."

Qrow glanced up at her; his gaze lingered for a moment, and he gave a slight nod. "It's a nice idea."

"Détente," Weiss breathed, slumping a little in her relief.

"Dewha?"

"Détente. Ceasefire. Truce. Ugh, if we ever have to introduce my sister to Yang I will actually die."

"You'll have to send me some of the pictures," Qrow told Ruby. "Assuming your scroll's still working."

"Well, if it _took _the pictures—"

"It didn't," Weiss realised. "We took all the pictures on _my _scroll."

Ruby froze. Then she began digging through her pockets, a look of dread coming over her face. "Oh _no. _My scroll's gone."

"Don't panic," Winter instructed, holding up a hand. "There's a chance we'll be able to find it by retracing our steps. Weiss, try calling Ruby. Ruby, try thinking of the last place you had your scroll."

Ruby frowned as Weiss dialled. "I know for sure I had it at Weiss's, because I pulled it out while I was telling you how I found Zwei. Then I set it down on the table…and I picked it up again when I…"

She trailed off as Zwei started vibrating again. Weiss's gaze darted from her scroll's display—_Calling Ruby—_to the corgi and back. "Uh," she began in a high-pitched voice.

Slowly, they all turned to look at Zwei, who appeared unperturbed as he continued to rumble against the brick. Ruby cautiously got to her knees and pressed her ear against his floof. She could just hear a tinny echo of her ringtone.

* * *

_**A/N: ngl it actually kills me a little that Forever Fall is **_**north _of Beacon instead of south. Like no...no, hon, red _below _green, _purple _above green, blue right, yellow left, come on. The reference was right there on a silver platter. Vacuo and Mistral got with the program just fine! Do I need to get General Jinjur in here with a map?  
_**

_**Comments, critiques, etcetera: all are welcome. Thanks for reading! And for those of you who celebrate it, Happy Easter!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: This chapter, Ruby introduces Jaune and Pyrrha to some other friends of hers, the four most popular students at Pharos High School: Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlatina, and Yatsuhashi Daichi. Jaune, who expects to attend Pharos come autumn, sees an opportunity. But something's bothering Pyrrha…and she doesn't seem to want to talk about it. Meanwhile, Ruby soon gets the feeling that there's an entirely different kind of trouble brewing…**_

_**To prevent confusion about ages, lemme clarify: just like in **_**RWBY **_**canon, the Vale school system is a mashup of Western and Japanese norms. Here I'm using the Western autumn-to-spring two-term school year, but high school only lasts three years and starts at roughly age 15 like in Japan. Thus, Pyrrha, Jaune, and as previously mentioned Weiss are preparing to enter high school, but are all fifteen years old—two years older than Ruby, as per.**_

_**Right then! Chapter 4, here we go. I hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

**Jaune Gets Caffeinated**

"That settles it." Jaune planted his hands firmly on the desk, nodding to himself. "Pyrrha?" he called out to the front. "I need you to start dating Coco Adel!"

"There…are…multiple problems with that idea," Pyrrha replied after a long moment, appearing in the kitchen doorway with a rather nervous smile in place. "Let's start with the fact that I don't actually know anyone called Coco Abel, so I have no idea what you're talking about."

"It's A_del, _and it's fine, you'll like her. Everyone likes her. See? It's right here on the chart." He tapped one of the sheets of loose-leaf notepaper strewn over the desk in front of him.

With some trepidation, Pyrrha crossed the Bakehouse kitchen to the little nook that served as the office; there had been a real office, once, but it and the rest of the upstairs had been converted and into an apartment that the Bakehouse's owner rented out as a side-hustle. "I thought you were working on your late-entry admissions essay for Signal Academy," she said warily. "Which is why you're back here during your shift and not up front with me."

Jaune dismissed her concerns with a wave. "We're past peak post-lunch business and we've still got an hour before post-work customers start coming in. Look, all through middle school there were two clear front-runners for coolest kid, but the favourite was always Coco. Now that she's at Pharos High, she's got an undisputed lead. If you're in with Coco, you're in, period."

"This sounds like some fairly intense politics for a high school," Pyrrha noted, crossing her arms.

"Pyrrha, I have watched literally _dozens _of teen movies. Trust me, this is nothing. Anyway, I need an in with Coco and even if I was in her league which, let's face it, I'm not," he gestured to himself broadly, making a face.

"You really shouldn't put yourself down like that," Pyrrha demurred before he could continue. "I think you're—fine. I mean, you look fine. _Just _fine."

"…You okay there, Pyr'? You're looking kind of—"

"I am also fine!" she exclaimed, her blush darkening. "Go on, you were explaining how this nobody not-important Coco person thinks she can do better than you."

"Actually, I was saying that she's _very _important, probably has no idea who I am, and wouldn't be into me even if she did because I'm a guy." Jaune watched Pyrrha a moment longer, still looking sceptical. "You're sure you're okay? Ovens have been off for a while, but it is pretty stuffy back here. I could prop the back door open, get some air moving?"

"No, it's fine." Pyrrha smiled. "But thank you for offering."

"Hey, anytime." Jaune punched his knuckles lightly against her shoulder. "We're partners, right?"

"Yes. Of course we are."

"Which brings us back to…"

"Jaune." The hand that caught his forearm was gentle, but Pyrrha's voice was firm. "To be clear, you want me to date a girl who goes to a school you _might _also be going to so that you can use me to make friends with her?"

"Yeah! That's exactly…" Jaune blinked. "Oh. _Ohhh. _Wow, it sounds so much worse out loud."

Pyrrha nodded, smiling sadly as she withdrew her hand. "I realise this is a little hypocritical coming from me, but I think you _might _be overthinking this. Just a little."

"You really think so?"

"Mmhm."

Jaune slumped. "I just—look, _all _of my sisters have gone to Pharos before me. _All of them._ All through middle school I was _Saphron's brother, Primrose's brother, Solara's brother_—I'm just sick of being the token Arc boy. And Solara _just _graduated this spring! Every teacher, every coach, and two-thirds of the student bodyare going to remember my sisters and expect more of _that _when what they're getting is _me."_

"That sounds more like their problem than yours."

"Sure, except for the part where it'll define my entire high school experience unless I break the mould as fast as I can." Jaune shook his head. "If I can just get in good with Coco and her friends, then suddenly I'm on people's radar for reasons that have nothing to do with my family. I can figure the rest out from there."

"_Or _you could get into Signal. And then we could go to the same school." Pyrrha brightened. "We might even be classmates!"

"Yeah." Jaune looked away. "That would be great."

Her face fell. She opened her mouth, but was interrupted by the sound of the shop bell and a familiar voice.

"Jaune? Pyrrha?"

"Shoot, it's Friday. End-of-week afternoon snack," Jaune groaned, popping himself in the forehead with the heel of his hand. "Coming, Ruby! 'Scuse me," he added more quietly, slipping past her to head out front. "Hey, if you want to make up that break you gave me, I can run the front for a few," he offered, glancing back over his shoulder. "Only seems fair."

"I might," Pyrrha said, fixing a smile on her face. "Thank you."

When he had gone, Pyrrha turned back to the desk, frowning. She slid Jaune's makeshift chart out of the way, glancing at the small handful of papers underneath—essay rough drafts, each one, heavily scribbled-over, with large sections crossed out.

* * *

"You _know _Coco?"

"Oookay, Jaune, let's all keep calm here." Ruby eyed the croissant in Jaune's hands warily; one of its delicious flaky points was aimed at her as if in accusation. "Put the pastry down and we can talk this out."

"Oh, sorry." Jaune stuffed the croissant into a bag and pushed it across the counter towards her. "I just didn't realise you were so…well-connected."

"My best friend is Weiss Schnee," Ruby reminded him. "She could buy and sell us."

"Right, right right right, but she's—you know—she's a friend in a different kind of high place. So how _do _you know Coco?"

"Through her friend Velvet. We're _FR3 _guildmates. We realised we lived in the same area and that she was only a few years older than me so we met up for real a few months ago."

"FR…?"

"_Final Round 3._ The FPS? _Jaune._ You're a gamer. You know this."

"I, uh, I actually don't play shooters." Jaune shook himself. "Not important! _You."_

Ruby shrank back from his intense gaze. "Me?"

"You're already on the inside," Jaune breathed. "You're my in!"

"Okay, I think I missed something. You shrug it off like it's nothing when I mention Weiss but _Coco _gets your full attention?" Ruby crossed her arms, giving him a stern look. "What's going on? Oh no. You don't have a crush on her, do you? Because I'm pretty sure Pyrrha's more her type than you are."

"Yeah, I know, but I already realised setting them up was a dead end and also kinda messed up. Friend of a friend of a friend," Jaune mused, narrowing his eyes in calculation. "Distant enough to have barely heard of me, close enough for an introduction. It's perfect!"

Ruby's eyes slid from him to Pyrrha, who'd just stepped out of the kitchen, looking pensive. "Help?"

She shook her head slightly as if to clear it, offering Ruby a bright, slightly bashful smile. "Oh…Jaune has a case of the freshman jitters, that's all. New school, new classmates, just walking in surrounded by people you don't know but who know your reputation…as an Arc," she added, nodding towards Jaune.

"And also people who _do _know me and _have _known me for years, because that's its own problem. I mean, come on, I'm not the only one who ate a crayon in kindergarten, _Quince, _gods." He crossed his arms, still grumbling quietly. "…didn't get stranded climbing the trellis like _someone _I could mention…"

"Maaaaybe I lucked out with the whole home-schooling/tutoring/immortal-mentorship thing," Ruby reflected; the door bell chimed, a couple of patrons stepping in behind her. Jaune straightened up hastily, and Ruby grabbed her bag and slid away from the register.

"Good afternoon! Welcome to…"

"Psst. Ruby."

Pyrrha beckoned Ruby towards the far side of the pastry case, leaning over it to speak to her quietly. "To be perfectly honest, I think Jaune's getting more worked up over this than he really needs to," she said bluntly. "I don't know what it's like to have older siblings, but if he can just get his Signal application through in time, he might not even be going to the same high school his sisters went to. And even if he _does _go to Pharos, I can't believe the social order is as rigid as he's making it out to be. But I do understand wanting to be among friends, and it's important to Jaune to make friends with Coco. Do you think you could introduce them?"

"Hmm." Ruby thought about it, glancing at Jaune consideringly. "Well…they're both cool people. I mean, Coco's a traditional kind of cool and Jaune is a Jaune kind of cool, but I guess it could work."

"All you need to give him is an opening. A chance to try and make a good impression."

"It's really that important to him?"

"He drew an entire chart to prove that his chances of having a positive experience at Pharos High depended on befriending Coco Adel. It's incredibly detailed. I find it both concerning and strangely impressive," Pyrrha admitted.

Jaune raised a hand in farewell as the other customers left. "Have a nice day!"

"You too!"

"So Jaune," Ruby said casually, sidling up to the counter and raising an eyebrow in what she hoped was an intriguing fashion. "Remember how I said I was meeting up with Velvet and her friends including one _Coco Adel _this evening?"

"The…very start of our conversation, yes. Wait…"

She smiled slyly. "Be at the Gunmetal before we arrive there at seven. I'll make a big thing about recognising you at the bar and invite you over to hang out with us."

"Bar?" Pyrrha echoed, slightly alarmed.

Ruby waved her off. "They're super careful about carding and they don't let you carry more than one drink away from the bar at a time. There's an old-timey soda fountain and a whole mocktail menu for the underage crowd. It's mostly a music venue. You get bigger audiences if you can let teens in, too."

"It still sounds strange…"

"And make sure to bring _chill-_Jaune," Ruby urged, passing her hand smoothly over the counter to emphasise _chill._ "This is not a 'better to try and fail' scenario. True coolness knows when you're trying too hard. At least that's what Velvet says Coco says and Yang agreed when I asked her."

"Right." Jaune set his jaw, nodding to himself. "Try to be cool without trying to be cool."

"You got it." Ruby gave him a thumbs-up and headed for the door. "Seven o' clock!" she reminded him, pointing. "The Gunmetal! Chill!"

"Chill like a—a cold thing! Refrigerator!" he called after her as the door swung shut behind her. His shoulders slumped. _"Chill like a refrigerator. _Great start."

"You panicked," Pyrrha said soothingly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It happens."

"I panicked acting cool around _Ruby," _Jaune groaned, burying his face in his hands. "I don't have a chance being chill-Jaune in front of Coco! Who even _is _chill-Jaune?" He lowered his hands, spreading them in bewilderment. "Have we met him? Does he exist!?"

"I work with chill-Jaune five days a week," Pyrrha assured him. "He's a fun, likeable guy who makes people smile and has regulars asking after him when he's gone. And…I've only really known him for a few months, but I think he's pretty cool."

She smiled shyly, and after a moment, Jaune returned the expression. "Yeah. Yeah! I can do this."

Pyrrha laughed, clapping his shoulder and withdrawing her hand. "That's the spirit. Oh! Coffeepot's running low."

"Yeah, those last customers took four black to go."

"I'll get the second machine going." She turned away, crouching for better access to the lowboy where they kept the cream and coffee grounds.

"Pyrrha?"

"Yes?" she prompted, shoving a couple bottles of non-dairy creamer out of her way.

"How would you feel about going out with me? …Pyrrha? Ground control to Major Pyrrha. Do you copy?"

"Copy!" Pyrrha squeaked, backing out of the fridge and straightening with a bag of coffee grounds in hand. "I copy. S-say again, ground control? Over?"

Jaune laughed, leaning back against the counter. "How would you feel about going out with me, over? Could use a good wingman at the Gunmetal tonight."

"Wingman," Pyrrha echoed brightly. "I thought you were ground control."

"My plane's in the shop."

"Oh really?"

"Mmhm. Got into a super-cool dogfight. You should've seen it." Jaune's expression became more serious. "You don't have to come. But I'd really appreciate it if you'd be there keep me grounded."

"Well…" Pyrrha turned her back on him, flipping open the top of the coffee machine and starting to set it up. "I'm not sure I can do that, Jaune."

"Oh." Jaune swallowed. "Yeah, okay. That's fair. It was just a th—"

"After all," she added lightly as she finished up and turned back, "I can't be your wingman if you're grounded, can I? I'm supposed to watch your back…and keep you up in the clouds."

She squeaked again as he hugged her. "Pyrrha Nikos, you are the most amazing person I've ever met."

Slowly, she relaxed, settling her hands on his back. "You're not so bad yourself, Jaune Arc."

* * *

Zwei bounded around Ruby's feet as she stepped into the house, closing the door behind her and stooping to swoop him up. "Aw! Were you waiting for me?"

He wriggled and licked her face, making her laugh. "Alright, alright. I'm home for now. I'm going back out soon, though. Sorry, buddy."

She set him down gently on the floor and he immediately scurried a few paces away, then back, then away again, wagging his tail and perking his ears intently.

"You want me to follow you?"

"_Woof!"_ affirmed Zwei, pivoting around with a heavy leap and dashing off across the living room towards the stairs.

"Is everyone else upstairs?" she asked him, following him up. He stopped outside the first door on the right, looking at her expectantly.

"I think it's gonna take a _bit_ longer before he eases up on the 'no dogs in his room' thing," Ruby warned; even so, she knocked. "Ozpin? You home?"

"You can come in," she heard, and wasted no time turning the knob and stepping inside. Ozpin was by the window, pulling back the curtains and letting sunlight spill across the array of rugs on the floor.

"I was attempting to expose our mystery materiel to different wavelengths of light in hopes of learning something new," he explained, nodding towards the thoroughly-disassembled, partially-slagged remains of the device they'd found in Forever Fall when Ruby had met Zwei. "I'm beginning to think I'll have to admit defeat; neither Qrow nor I can think of anything we haven't tried to coax answers out of the blasted thing. Pardon the mess. I haven't put much effort into tidying up lately."

The 'mess' seemed to consist entirely of a small handful of books, papers, and tools congregated around the wrecked machine; the rest of the worktable which spanned one wall of the room was as clean and orderly as ever. Bookends kept each volume and ledger on the bookshelves upright despite the gaps left by Ozpin's ongoing research. One filing cabinet had a drawer open about two inches, and what Ruby could see of the files inside were still in their neat accordion-columns; Ozpin reached out and closed it as he passed, heading for the low table where his antique tea-tray sat. He hefted the silver chocolate pot in one hand, eyeing her questioningly.

"No thank you," Ruby said; Ozpin nodded and flipped over only a single mug, pouring a dark, aromatic stream of cocoa into it. "Are Qrow and Yang not home?"

"Mm." Ozpin sipped from his mug and returned to his office chair, gesturing at the other, smaller chair which was tucked against the wall by the door. Ruby grabbed it by the top of its back and pulled it towards him as he replied. "I asked Yang to handle a small mission in my stead. Nothing arduous, but she likely won't be home until late tonight or early tomorrow morning. She decided it was preferable to the alternative of going down to your father's house and helping him move a couch, which is where Qrow has been for the last hour."

"…It shouldn't take an hour to move a couch."

"No. I suspect he's avoiding me." Ozpin smiled wryly. "He's worried that I'm obsessing, but doesn't want to come right out and say it in as many words for fear I'll take it poorly."

"You _have _been spending a lot of time up here," Ruby ventured to say.

"I didn't say he was _wrong." _He laughed softly."I don't like having questions I can't answer. It makes me wonder if I'm missing something important, and you know how I hate to be reminded that I don't _actually _know everything there is to know."

"Hey, no self-awareness!" Ruby complained. "It makes it harder for me and Yang to make fun of you behind your back." She looked over at the dull greenish-grey of the mysterious machinery. What little she could discern of its shape was just _strange, _elongated in places that seemed like they should have been compact, rounded edges where she would have expected sharp lines. "Oof. You guys _really_ murdered that thing."

Ozpin grimaced. "Not our finest moment, I admit. I would have much preferred an intact, operational sample for study. I could have at least figured out how it worked, then, even if its material composition seems determined to elude me."

"You're taking this kind of personally." Ruby raised an eyebrow. "You know the machine isn't actually challenging you, right?"

"I don't know _anything. _Which is rather the problem." He shook his head, releasing a quiet sigh. "But enough of that. To what do I owe the visit?"

"Oh—actually, Zwei led me up here." Ruby looked over her shoulder to see Zwei lying in a sphinx pose just outside the threshold, watching them. "Aw, li'l loaf. I ran into Velvet earlier and she invited me to hang out with some of her friends tonight, so I was just going to grab a sandwich and get changed and then catch the next airbus back to the city. I'm meeting them at seven; we should be done around…I don't know, ten or eleven? Before midnight. No big deal."

So she probably should have run that by her father, and on one level, Ruby knew that. But she didn't _live _with her father, and Ozpin was all wise and old and responsible and stuff. It wasn't _her _fault if Gems sometimes forgot things like how children were supposed to keep earlier hours than adults and weren't usually allowed to tear around the city unsupervised after dark. Heck, _Ruby _only knew that thanks to TV and the Internet. So if she happened to frame her plans like a completely normal thing for a thirteen-year-old to do and that happened to lead to Ozpin nodding slightly and saying something like, "Ah. Thank you for letting me know; I'll make sure Qrow and Yang know not to worry if they get home before you do." —well, it wasn't like she'd _lied_ or anything, now was it?

* * *

"So this is what Valean teenagers do in the evening?" Leaning against the bar, Pyrrha patted one hand anxiously atop the other, looking around the crowded interior of the Gunmetal. The…club, she supposed, was located on the western edge of the Commercial District, where storefronts and office blocks and the occasional apartment complex began to give way to warehouses and processing plants. It would have been nearly impossible to find if there hadn't been enough foot traffic to follow right to the door.

"Yeah," Jaune said confidently, nodding as he, too, scanned the crowd. "Definitely. It's exactly what cool, carefree teenagers with social skills like you and me do all the time. I mean, look at you! You fit right in."

Pyrrha tugged at the edge of her short denim skirt with a self-consciousness she hadn't had a moment ago. "These are my normal summer clothes, Jaune. I just have to wear long pants at work because of health code."

"Oh." He fiddled with the straw in his soda. "I like your strappy sandals," he tried again. "You look like a gladiator!"

She had to laugh. "Thanks, Jaune. And I like the elegant simplicity of your T-shirt and jeans."

Jaune groaned. "_Too _simple? Ruby said not to try too hard, did I go too far the other way?"

"No! No. She told you to bring 'chill-Jaune', and you did," Pyrrha assured him. "You look just right to me."

"Oh my gosh, Jaune! Pyrrha!"

"_Oh boy this is happening," _Jaune whispered, his eyes going wide. "Ruby!" he exclaimed, turning on the spot and beaming; Pyrrha lunged behind him and caught his drink just before it tipped over. "I didn't know you came here! What a coincidence!"

"Too much, too much," Pyrrha hissed urgently.

"I mean, of course you hang out here, duh, where—where else would you hang out?" Jaune amended, smiling nervously.

"…Right!" Ruby turned up her smile, threading her way through the handful of standing tables towards them. Like Jaune and Pyrrha, she hadn't taken particular care to dress up. The only difference between what she wore now and her usual outfit was that her shorts were black denim instead of blue and there were studs in her earlobes; she still wore her familiar red hoodie.

A cluster of three other teens hesitated briefly inside the door, a Faunus girl with rabbit ears already a few paces ahead of them as if she'd been about to follow Ruby when she'd realised the others weren't with her. She was glancing back uncertainly over her shoulder at a young woman in shades and a beret with a large handbag hooked over her arm.

The girl in the shades pulled them down her nose by the hinge, examining Jaune and Pyrrha closely. She shoved them back into place with a definitive motion and sauntered forward, the boys behind her almost flanking her as she walked. The Faunus girl grinned and kept moving, and it was she who reached them first.

"This is my friend Velvet!" Ruby said, gesturing to her. "The one I game with? And these are her friends Coco, Fox, and Yatsuhashi."

"Yatsu's fine," the taller of the boys interjected.

"Guys, this is Jaune and Pyrrha. I know them from around town. We hang out sometimes." Usually only when one of them had a break coinciding with Ruby's visits to the Bakehouse, but no one needed to know that.

"Pyrrha _Nikos, _right?" Coco guessed, holding out a hand.

Pyrrha wilted a little as she took it, but quickly pasted on a brilliant smile. "You've heard of me."

"Sanctum Middle's very own record-breaking cross-country champ? This girl won the Matsu Lakeshore Marathon _two days _before she turned fourteen," she told the redheaded boy—Fox, then. _"Fourteen._ Some of the runners she beat were _professional."_

"Impressive," Fox agreed, looking right past them. Jaune glanced over his shoulder, but didn't see anything that might have caught his attention.

"Heard Signal Academy snatched you up with a scholarship," Coco said, planting her hand on her hip. "Shame. Pharos could use an edge. Least we've got Fox." She leaned back and bumped shoulders with him; this too failed to draw his gaze, though he smiled.

"We should grab a table together!" Ruby suggested. "Most people aren't here in big groups—I bet we can find room for seven closer to the stage!"

"Hang on, drinks first," Coco said, holding up a finger. "The usual, everyone? I'll get a Damascus…"

"So far, so good," Ruby whispered, leaning in towards Jaune. "Keep it up!"

"I didn't do anything," he pointed out.

"That's because you're playing it cool! Waiting for your moment!"

"Wait for my moment," he repeated. "Okay. Yeah. I mean, no one likes the guy who just inserts himself into every conversation, right? Baby steps."

"Baby steps," Ruby affirmed, then realised the bartender was looking at her expectantly. "Oh! I'll take a Strawberry Fields. No ice, please!"

"So, Jaune, right?" He turned his head to see Velvet smiling pleasantly at him. "Ruby's mentioned you a few times. I hear you game?"

"Yeah, now and then. Not shooters like you guys, though. More of a single-player…player."

Velvet nodded. "Fair dos. So what's your poison, then?—Thanks," she added to the bartender, reaching out and grabbing a tumbler of dark, red-tinted liquid with a sprig of mint perched atop it.

"RPGs, mostly," Jaune admitted.

"Ooh. _Lost Age," _she suggested.

"A classic! Great story, cool world, plus the controls were way smoother than they usually are in those point-and-click top-down style games." He realised the group was moving and followed along, Velvet keeping pace with him. "Have you had a chance to play _Heresy _yet?"

"That's…the one with the paladin gets kicked out of their order for consorting with demons, right?"

"Yeah, but obviously it's the church being way too harsh and not bothering to investigate properly."

"I figured. You don't really see a lot of evil protagonists in video games, except for the 'Whoops, turns out I was on the wrong side all along!' bit that pops up at the halfway mark sometimes." Velvet raised her hands and rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Yeah, but I'm kind of getting the feeling that there's gonna be a 'join the dark side' option down the road; sort of a grey-versus-grey morality thing. I'm thinking about trying that on a second playthrough."

"Huh. Might have to pick it up when it goes on sale. I keep hearing good things."

"Yatsu, help me make a table," Coco commanded, handing her glass off to Velvet. Pyrrha shifted chairs out of the way while Coco and Yatsuhashi each grabbed opposite sides of a small table and hauled it a few feet over, matching it edge-to-edge with another. Coco braced a palm on it, and it wobbled slightly. "Eh. Good enough."

"So who's playing tonight?" Ruby asked Fox as they sat down.

"Local artist called Souleander. I think they're a group. Apparently they're what happens when you put folk and trance together."

"…What does that even sound like?"

"I guess we'll know it when we hear it?" Fox shrugged. "I'll listen to anything once."

"It's good," Yatsuhashi assured them. "Trance and psychedelic folk have actually been around for awhile. The genre's had time to find its footing. No idea what Souleander's sound is like, though."

"Besides, if it's terrible, at least we'll get a story out of it," Coco reasoned. "No social-media blasting, though; that's tacky. We don't do tacky. So Pyrrha, you're new to town. First time here?"

"I didn't even know this place existed until—_Jaune _invited me." Pyrrha caught herself just in time, managing not to glance at Ruby.

"Huh, so you're the one with his finger on the pulse," Velvet joked, nudging him with an elbow.

"Heh, yeah, that's me." Jaune jammed his straw in his mouth, drawing off it deeply.

"Well, he steered you right." Coco leaned back in her chair, gesturing around. "This is _the_ place to make _your _place. Gods know there won't be time to scope out the competition once school starts up again."

"Speak not of the evil ones," Fox intoned, crossing his arms in an X-shape. "It's still June. No one wants to think about _September,"_ a word he enunciated with deepest disdain.

"You're both fifteen, right?" Velvet asked, glancing at Pyrrha before returning her attention to Jaune. "Are you going to Signal too, or joining us at Pharos?"

"What, am I mute now, too?" Fox threw up his hands. "Just hallucinating the sound of my own voice?"

"Maybe you're hallucinating all of our voices, and you're actually sitting at this table alone," Yatsuhashi suggested. "Ow!"

Fox wiped his fingers off on the napkin he was using for a coaster. "Not sure I could realistically hallucinate the sound of a lime wedge smacking a talking slab of muscle. Thanks for the reality check."

"I'm, uh, actually in the middle of trying to apply to Signal," Jaune said, turning back to Velvet. "But, y'know, they've got really high standards and I'm already in the late admission window, so it's probably gonna be Pharos."

Pyrrha looked down, stirring her drink around with her straw.

"Not the end of the world," Coco said languidly. "I wouldn't even let my parents apply to Signal for me. Their admissions propaganda is full of all kinds of dog-whistle anti-Faunus crap that makes the pearl-clutchers feel good about how their kids won't be mixing with any _bad influences._ No thanks."

"Tell us how you really feel," Fox suggested in a mild tone.

"Don't get me wrong, it's legit a great school and a lot of their students are actually pretty cool. So you get a spot, Jaune, you take it. Every seat that goes to a decent person isn't going to some asshole."

"But…you decided not to go," Pyrrha pointed out.

"My choice, my reasons," was Coco's brusque reply. "I've got a pretty meaty college fund. Long as I keep my grades up, I won't need Signal's rep behind me to make good."

"They've been best friends since fifth grade," Ruby whispered to Pyrrha, looking meaningfully from Coco to Velvet, who was worrying at the mint leaves sticking over the rim of her glass and not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Oh…"

"Well, either way, Jaune, best of luck to you." Yatsuhashi raised his glass. "To new friends and new beginnings!"

"Cheesy, Yats'," Coco complained, but she brought her glass up all the same. Pyrrha lifted hers a little belatedly, looking slightly startled, and Ruby's broad smile dimmed as she noticed.

* * *

Ruby had mixed feelings about trance folk, as it turned out, but Souleander were nothing if not enthusiastic. An hour later, she slipped off the dance floor, breathing a little heavier and sweating slightly; Yatsuhashi, Velvet, and Coco were still clustered together under the golden spotlights, moving to the music. She headed back to their table at a rushed pace, her steps still timed to the beat.

"I'm gonna go get some air," she said breathlessly once she'd gulped down the last of her mocktail.

"Yeah, keeping up with Coco isn't easy," Fox sympathised. "Take five."

"Hey, if Pyrrha's out there, could you make sure she's okay?" Jaune asked. "I was gonna go check on her in a minute."

"How long has she been gone?"

"Maybe five minutes? Not long enough to worry, just, you know. Better safe than sorry."

"Gotcha."

She threaded her way through the club and stepped outside, taking a deep lungful of night air—not exactly refreshing, since it was summer-muggy and they weren't in the cleanest part of the city, but at least these were different smells, and the air wasn't totally still. Looking around, she saw Pyrrha sitting on the curb, chin in her hands and elbows on her knees, her rolled-sleeve jacket draped over her lap to compensate for the way her skirt rode up.

"Oh. Hello, Ruby," she said as the Gem-hybrid took a seat next to her.

"Hey." Ruby pulled her legs up to her chest. "How you holding up?"

"I'm fine!" Pyrrha said brightly, not meeting her eyes. "I just needed to take a few minutes out here. I'll be in shortly."

"You only came because Jaune asked, didn't you," Ruby surmised.

Pyrrha drew in a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out. "I'm not really a…dance club person."

"Yeah." Ruby nodded, her chin bouncing off her knees. "I've only been here a couple times and it's always with Velvet and her friends. This is actually the first time they've gotten me to dance with them. I don't…I don't really dance. But you know, it was fun once I tried it. Even though I'm pretty sure I'm not very good at it."

Pyrrha shook her head slightly. "How can you enjoy doing something you're bad at?"

"Well, if someone were standing around grading me on everything I did, I probably couldn't. But the only people here whose opinions I care about are my friends. They're not gonna _stop_ being my friends just because I dance like a jellyfish having a seizure."

Despite herself, Pyrrha snorted with laughter. "There was a _lot _of flailing," she admitted, glancing at Ruby sidelong.

Ruby blushed. "Everyone was flailing! It's not my fault I don't know how to flail with purpose!"

Pyrrha laughed outright this time, and Ruby joined her. Their mirth slowly subsided into silence, comfortable at first, but with an edge of tension.

"Ruby," Pyrrha began hesitantly. "Do Coco and the others know about…?"

She gestured vaguely to the area below her collarbone, and Ruby sucked in air around her teeth.

"I'm not sure?" She looked away. "I think maybe Velvet knows, because I don't always think before I say things over chat and I've talked about the Gems before. I never officially told her, and even if she does know I don't know if she'd tell the others." Thoughtlessly, she tugged at the front of her hoodie. "I don't think it would bother them, especially since they've already gotten to know me. You and Jaune don't care, and neither does Weiss. A-and people like Gems, mostly. They did save the planet once!"

"Especially your mother."

"I'm proud of my mom," Ruby said defensively.

"I know!" Pyrrha said, raising her hands in placation. "And you should be! But—don't you ever feel like when people know who she is and that you're her daughter, that's all you are to them? Not just _Ruby,_ but _Ruby, half-Gem hybrid, child of the legendary Rose Quartz?"_

"…Or _Pyrrha Nikos, cross-country champion, youngest-ever winner of the Matsu Lakeshore Marathon?"_

"I like being an athlete," Pyrrha insisted. "Cross-country, track and field—I used to play lacrosse—I'm _good _at what I do, and I'm proud of that! But every girl who wants to befriend me, every boy who wants to date me, every _school _that wants to recruit me—! They don't care about _me; _they never even _see _me_._ And none of them even realise that! To them I _am _my accomplishments." She buried her face in her hands. "And the institutions are one thing, but the _people…!_

"Jaune was the first person in _years _who didn't think of me that way. Do you know what the first thing he said to me was?" She dropped her hands, half-laughing. _"'Wow, you're tall!'_ Just that. Even after he found out about everything else, he just told me it was _really cool _and started talking about how he planned to start an exercise regimen. That's it! Like it was normal! Like his working to be better at school sports was just the natural next topic on from my already being good at them!"

"Isn't it?" Ruby asked with a touch of confusion.

"Yes! But there was no envy or resentment or…_hero-worship._ Just two friends, talking." She smiled wistfully. "And then I met you, and you were the same way. Living in Vale has been amazing so far just because of how rare it is for people to recognise me, but you two are the only people who acted like it wasn't a big deal when you found out."

"Weiss wasn't _too _weird about it once she got over the shock. It did take a couple hours before she stopped kicking herself for not recognising your name the first time you met, though."

"And I know it's not all on them," Pyrrha admitted. "I've never been good at talking to people. And now that they want to talk to me, I don't know what to say—and it doesn't even matter, because there's only one thing they want to talk to me about."

She looked over her shoulder at the door to the Gunmetal. "Jaune's really getting along with Coco and Velvet and the rest, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Ruby said at last, feeling oddly reluctant.

She nodded, the motion tight and sharp. "Good. Mission accomplished." She stood, pulling her jacket back on and straightening her skirt. "Now he doesn't have to worry about getting into Signal."

Ruby got to her feet. "Pyrrha, wait—"

"No, it. It's fine. I'm not—I'm not really myself right now, I'm sorry. I'm going to pay off my tab and let Jaune know I'm leaving so he doesn't worry."

"_Pyrrha."_

But she was already swinging through the Gunmetal's doorway, ponytail fluttering behind her.

"Oof," Ruby heard from behind herself; she whirled around to see Coco leaning against the brick wall, her arms crossed over her chest. "You know what they say about eavesdroppers never liking what they hear? Now I feel rude _and _like a total heel. Think that's what they call an 'object lesson'."

"How long have you been there?"

"Came out right when you were dissing your own moves. I was gonna come hang with you two, but then things got heavy and I didn't want to butt in. Absolutely do not care about the Gem thing, by the way, don't worry. Also I kind of just got the speed guide to why making a big thing about it would be a dick move so, yeah."

It was the closest to _awkward _that Ruby had ever seen Coco Adel, and she was brazening through it like a pro. She understood a little better now how she could be Velvet's best friend.

"Your friends are cool people, which is why I don't care that this whole chance encounter was clearly a set-up." Ruby cringed, but Coco waved her off. "Thought Jaune was gonna be weird about it at first, but he settled in. I was actually thinking about nudging him towards Velvet until," she made a gesture as if drawing a circle around the curb, "all _that._ Does he know?"

"Know…?"

"That she's probably got a diary full of nothing but hearts doodled around every possible combination of their names? I'm going to guess _no,_ from how chill he's been around her."

"I don't know if she actually—"

"Give it a couple years, you'll know." She _tsk_ed, shaking her head. "Those two need to talk. I don't know if it's about school, or each other, or _what, _but they better figure it out. Oh, _hello."_

As Coco pulled her sunglasses down to get a better look, Ruby turned to see what it was that had gotten her attention. "Wait—is that—?"

"Oh, please be coming this way," Coco murmured. "Do me a solid while you're at it and be under twenty and at least a little bi, come on."

"That's _Yang," _Ruby managed at last, watching the Ametrine turn off into an alleyway, her unmistakable mane of yellow hair rippling behind her. She didn't seem to have noticed her observers.

"You know her?"

"Yeah, she's my—uh—she's one of the Gems I live with. But I thought she was out on a mission! What's she doing here?"

"Maybe that _is _what she's doing." Coco shrugged, shoving her sunglasses back into place. "Damn. Knew I was piling on too many wishes. Six thousand years is one hell of an age difference."

"Four thousand," Ruby corrected her automatically, still watching Yang's retreating form. "Uh, Coco? Would you mind settling up for me?" She rummaged in a pocket and dug out a pre-loaded card of lien, glancing at it briefly to confirm the amount. "I wanna make sure nothing's wrong."

"No problem." Coco took the card and slipped it into her purse. "You coming back?"

"I don't know. Don't wait on me."

"Alright, then. It's been real. Text Velvet when you get home, okay? Kinda dicey to be out alone at night."

"I will. Thanks!" Ruby called, already racing across the street.

* * *

"'Night, Pyrrha," Jaune heard Coco say; then he found himself face to face with the woman herself, the door swinging shut behind her. The blank stare of her sunglasses seemed to be judging him—or maybe that was his stretched reflection on the polarised lenses.

"You heading out, too?" she asked.

"W—" He gestured helplessly at the door. "Trying to figure out why _Pyrrha's _going!"

"Guess she's just had enough for the night. Not you, though, right? Come have another round. The night's young."

Jaune was already shaking his head. "No, something upset her. Look, Coco, it's been really nice meeting you and Velvet and Yatsu and Fox, but I dragged Pyrrha along to this and if I'm the reason she's upset I need to fix that."

He went to push past her towards the door, but she caught his arm. "Wait!"

"I need to—"

Coco cut him off. "Did you pay up?"

"…Oh _shoot."_

Coco sighed and held out a hand, flexing her fingers impatiently. "Just leave it with me. I've got to get Ruby rung out too."

Jaune frowned as he fumbled through his wallet. "Wait, Ruby left too?"

"Unrelated. We talked before she left; she's fine. She'll check in with Velvs once she's home."

He handed over the lien. "Um. Thanks. And sorry for ditching you guys. It's been fun."

"No, you're right. Pyrrha's upset, and _don't," _she warned, holding up a hand, "even _think _about asking me what's wrong. That is for her to tell you. If you hadn't noticed something was up, I'd have given you an earful. If you'd noticed and decided to stick around anyway, I'd have kicked your ass out that door and into the street." Coco's chin lowered and lifted, making it clear she was giving him a searching once-over. "You're good people, Jaune. Go get your girl. Make it right."

"O-oh, she's not my—"

"And tell her I'm sorry for drooling over her earlier. If she wants to start over, she's welcome to hang out any time. So're you." She tapped two fingers against her brow and flicked them out, saluting him with a lazy flourish.

Jaune returned the gesture with a bemused little smile and a huff of incredulous laughter; then he was gone, the door slamming closed behind him. In the hectic clamour of the club, no one noticed.

"Alright. Core-four party it is," Coco told herself, heading for the bar; the bartenders from earlier were still there, but a third had joined them to keep up with the demand. Coco smiled at the pretty, dark-skinned brunette and made a beeline towards her. Up close, she noticed a beauty mark by the young woman's left eye. Mm, she was sucker for artful asymmetry. "Hey there. I need to close out some of my friends' tabs…"

* * *

"Pyrrha! Pyrrha, wait up!"

She half-turned around, confused, as she heard the running footsteps pounding up behind her. "Jaune? What are you—I thought you'd be back at the Gunmetal."

He braced his hands on his thighs, breathing hard. "Hang—hang on a sec. _Whew._ I s-swear I'm in better shape than—than this." After a moment, he cleared his throat and straightened up. "You walk _really _fast."

"It gets me where I'm going," Pyrrha replied inanely, staring at him. "Jaune, why are you _here?"_

"Because you are. I needed to talk to you."

"Why? Tonight was about letting you get to know Coco and her friends. You can't do that if you're standing on an empty sidewalk with me in the middle of the night!"

"It's actually only like, eight-thirty, it just feels really late for some reason. Not the point!" He took a deep breath. "I _did _want to get to know them, and now I have. Uh, Coco says we can come back anytime, by the way, and she wanted me to tell you she was sorry for…'drooling over you' earlier."

Pyrrha looked surprised again; a brief, small smile flickered over her lips before it was eclipsed by her frown. "I thought you were having a good time, though."

"I thought _you _were having a good time. Guess I wasn't paying close enough attention, huh?" He laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

"It isn't your job to keep me happy, Jaune."

"And it's not your job to be my cheerleader, but that's exactly what you were tonight. I don't think I would have had the guts to come alone. Probably would have just chickened out and, I don't know, shoved an entire frozen pizza in my face while feeling sorry for myself."

She looked faintly appalled. "Tell me you've never actually done that."

"Uh…just checking, friends can lie to each other as long as it's nothing important, right?"

"_Jaune!"_

"Hey! It was only plain cheese and Aqua Dellario had just broken up with me over the Internet, in a public post, _when we weren't even dating to begin with._ There is a time and a place for eating your feelings and that's one of them, okay?"

"I'll…have to take your word for it." She fidgeted. "Look, Jaune, I'm sorry for ruining your evening. I just wasn't in a dance party mood."

"Hey." Jaune put a hand on her shoulder. "You didn't ruin _anything, _okay? You can't have, because nothing got ruined. So there. Now are you going to tell me what's really wrong, or am I going to have to start guessing? I'll remind you again that I have _seven _siblings; I am _really _good at 20 Questions."

"Nothing…" She sighed, looking away. "Nothing _is _wrong, Jaune. I'm just a terrible friend."

"That's crazy! You're—"

He realised, as the light caught her eyes just right, that she was on the edge of tears.

"…Pyrrha? Please talk to me."

"I should be _happy _for you," she whispered hoarsely. "But I'm _not._ The better you got along with _them, _the worse _I _felt. Because now you'll have friends at Pharos and that means you won't apply to Signal because you never wanted to anyway but you don't have a reason to anymore and I won't have—!"

She clapped her hands over her mouth.

"You…you wanted me to embarrass myself in front of Coco?"

"No! Yes? I don't know!" She stifled a sob, tears beginning to escape down her cheeks. "Gods, I'm such an awful, s-selfish_ bitch!_ Y-you deserve b-better than this…"

She felt his hand retreat. She could no longer clearly see him through her wavering vision, but she averted her gaze anyway.

_He shouldn't have to see me like this. Breaking down because he has other friends? Pathetic. No wonder no one likes the real Pyrrha Nikos. She's a piece of work._

And then, for the second time that day, Jaune embraced her. He was gentler this time, but he still hugged her tight. A sob worked its way out of her chest.

"There were so many times you could have sabotaged me," he said quietly. "Even before we got there. Or you could have just stayed home. But you came with me and you stood by me the whole time. Even when you were uncomfortable. You had my back."

"St-still flying?" she hiccupped, her heart pounding.

"Still flying, wingman. Nothing but clouds as far as the eye can see."

She'd be mortified later, she was sure, but for now Pyrrha buried her face in Jaune's shoulder and cried as shame slowly gave way to relief.

* * *

"So what made you think I didn't want to go to Signal?" Jaune asked as they walked.

"I saw all your essay drafts. You never got past the first paragraph." Pyrrha's voice was rough and her eyes were reddened, but the tears had stopped. A quiet, fragile hope sat in her chest where the sobs had been suffocating her. It was going to be okay. Jaune had forgiven her—Jaune, she was beginning to realise, didn't actually think there was anything to forgive. She hadn't ruined everything after all. "When you stopped trying and started working on that chart instead…"

"Oh. Okay, I can see how you got here from there." Jaune sighed. "The truth is, I was just procrastinating. Sure, I…I still don't think my chances of getting into Signal are all that good, but that doesn't mean I won't try. Even Coco said it was a good school. She just cared more about being with her friend."

Pyrrha held her silence with difficulty, swallowing around the lump in her throat.

"There was just…_so much _pressure. It felt like I was pinning all my hopes on getting into Signal. Like if I didn't, my life was basically over, because I'd be the eighth Arc kid at Pharos High, the newest underwhelming sequel that no one was waiting for, and either no one would like me or no one would even notice me—and I'm saying that like I've had this sudden realisation that that's stupid, but it honestly still scares me a little. _But._ Now I'm trying to tell myself that no matter which school I go to, it's going to be okay, and maybe if I do that enough I won't have so much trouble believing it. Like Coco said, I can still make good if I graduate from Pharos High, and I'll have friends there at least until senior year—and maybe I'll have made new ones by then."

He looked over at her. "What I'm trying to say is, not getting into Signal doesn't sound like the end of the world anymore. Which means that…_stupid essay _can stop being the make-or-break point in my head between option one, being a friendless loser and option two, getting to go to the best school in the kingdom with my best friend in the world. Maybe that'll make it a little easier to write."

"…Best friend?" Pyrrha echoed.

"Well. Yeah. I mean, like you said, we haven't really known each other for a really long time, but…we're good together. You know? Partners."

She smiled, and for the first time in far too long it felt free and easy and _real._ "Partners."

They walked in silence for a few moments.

"So how much longer is it to your place?" Jaune asked.

"My place?"

"Yeah…?"

"…I was following you. I thought this was the way to your house."

"It's not."

"It's not the way to my aunt's apartment, either."

They stopped.

"Where are we actually going?" Jaune asked.

"Well…" Pyrrha pulled out her scroll. "Let's find out whose place is closest and start there."

"Good plan. And then we never mention this again." Jaune typed his address into his own scroll, waiting while the GPS tried to find his current location. "No one ever needs to know we got lost in my hometown."

"Your hometown is a very big city—but if it makes you feel better, I promise not to tell."

"You got lost, too."

"_I _am a foreigner. _You _are a very ineffective tour guide."

"Hey, showing the new girl around is _Ruby's _thing, not mine," Jaune defended himself. "I don't make a habit of walking through the Industrial District."

"Speaking of Ruby, you should remember to thank her for introducing us to her friends," Pyrrha said. "And, er, you should let her know everything's alright, too. I _might _have slightly overshared with her before I left the Gunmetal."

"Apparently something came up for her too. Coco said she took off right before you did."

"Really?" Pyrrha frowned. "I hope it wasn't anything serious…"

"I'll make sure to ask when I talk to her. Now, let's see."

They held their scrolls up next to each other and observed the planned routes wordlessly.

"In my defense," Pyrrha said at last, "I really wasn't paying attention to which way I started walking."

"Yeah…I'm going to search for the nearest bus stop," Jaune decided, pulling his scroll back and tapping at the screen.

"I'll look up the schedule."

"Hurray for teamwork!" Jaune cheered through a grimace.

* * *

Several days passed with no sign of Ruby at the Bakehouse. This wasn't unheard-of. A frequent customer she might be, but she did still live on the other side of a fairly wide channel, and even with both the ferry service and the airbus, sometimes her schedule just didn't align with business hours. Several more days after that was a bit more worrying. By the time another Friday had come and gone, Pyrrha and Jaune were beginning to worry, especially when the next day Weiss came in alone and ordered an éclair and a coffee in a distracted tone, a pinched, vexed look on her face.

"Have either of you seen Ruby lately?" she asked abruptly. "Or heard from her?"

"Not since last week," Pyrrha said, frowning a little herself now. "Has she not been in touch with you?"

"No. Of course, _I _do not require constant contact with my social intimates. I was simply under the impression that Ruby did. …Does she?" Weiss tacked on, a touch of uncertainty seeping into her voice.

"It's not like her to leave her friends hanging," said Jaune. "So _none _of us have heard from Ruby since last Friday at the latest?"

"I've tried to text or call her a few times. She _has _replied on several occasions, but only to give the bare minimum answer—the last _five _texts I've gotten from her are either 'Hi' or just the letter _K!"_ She crossed her arms uncomfortably. "Most of the time her scroll rings through to voicemail and don't even get me _started _on when she _does _pick up! I called her at 4:00—4:00 _PM_—two days ago and I could swear she'd just woken up when she answered. Not that she said anything useful; she just told me she'd call me back and then hung up on me!"

"You have her number, right?" Pyrrha asked, looking over at Jaune.

"Yeah. Let me try calling her." Jaune already had his scroll out, dialling. He set it to his ear and they waited, Weiss's foot tapping softly against the floor.

"Hey, Ruby, it's Jaune. How've you been?"

And then he went dead pale.

"The—really? _Really?_ Oh. _Oh, _uh, J-Jaune Arc, ma'am. Is Ruby in trouble?"

"What? Who's got Ruby's scroll? What's going on?" Weiss demanded.

"Okay, um…No, ma'am. Just wasn't expecting to talk to you today. No offense, just—exactly, yeah…No ma'am, no I was not…Yes, my parents and at least three of my sisters…Seven, actually…Yup, I hear that a lot…Okay…Okay, got it. Thank you…you too."

"_Jaune!" _Weiss snapped as he ended the call, looking stunned.

"Ruby's okay," he began, which at least caused the set of Pyrrha's shoulders to relax a little. "So apparently her scroll is 'evidence' in some kind of crime…?"

"WHAT!?"

"I was just talking to a Detective Caliph, who's working…whatever the case is."

"A _crime?"_ Pyrrha's own interjection didn't match Weiss's for volume, but it was about equal in incredulity. _"Ruby?"_

"That's it. One of you has to know her address. I'm going over to see her," Weiss declared.

"Uh, I don't, actually. _But!"_ he added, peering under the counter beneath the register as Weiss growled and turned towards the door, "I _do _have a scroll directory, and I'm pretty sure it's not just the business numbers…yep!"

He dropped it on the counter with a heavy _thump, _flipping it to the end of the white pages. "Uh, is Xiao Long with an X or a Z? I never looked that close at her card and she pays with pre-loads half the time anyway…"

"X," Pyrrha and Weiss answered in unison. "X-I-A-O," Weiss added.

"X-I…Xiao Long, Taiyang!" Jaune announced triumphantly, pulling up the keypad on his scroll. "One listing. Go figure."

"Put it on speaker," Pyrrha suggested.

"Can do…"

"_Hello?"_

"Hi, Mr. Xiao Long? This is Jaune Arc. I'm a friend of Ruby's?"

"_Jaune. Right. We met last fall."_

"Right, at the fair! Um, so, I tried calling Ruby's scroll and…?"

"_And the police answered it. Yeah." _There was a strange smacking, snapping sound—Taiyang making some kind of irritated noise with his mouth, Jaune supposed. _"So she's not hurt and she's not in any legal trouble, but she is _incredibly _grounded right now."_

"But what _happened?"_ Weiss asked, slapping her hand down on the counter.

Taiyang said nothing for a moment. _"And you are?"_

"Weiss Schnee. Ruby's been—" she seemed to struggle for the words, "blowing me off all week!"

"You're on speaker, by the way," Jaune said belatedly.

"Full disclosure, I'm here too." Pyrrha waved pointlessly at Jaune's scroll. "My name's Pyrrha. Hello!"

"…_Gotcha."_ Taiyang sighed.

_He sounds tired,_ Pyrrha mouthed and Jaune, brow creasing in concern.

"_Look, she's not allowed to leave the house, but I'm not a fan of the take-away-the-scroll school of punishment. Ruby doesn't actually live with me, but I can give you three the landline number for her mom's old house and you can ask her all about it. Just don't pass it around—they're unlisted for a reason. Tell whoever picks up the line that I told you the number and that it was alright for you to talk to Ruby and they'll make it happen. Ready? It's…"_

"Alright," Jaune said once he'd written it down. "Thank you very much, sir."

"_No problem. I'm glad Ruby has friends who worry about her. Maybe she'll remember that next time she thinks about pulling a stunt like this."_

"Oh, she will," Weiss vowed; from the increasingly-thunderous look on her face, she appeared convinced that Ruby had gone on a killing spree or something on that order and that, worse, she'd done it for the sole purpose of inconveniencing Weiss.

"Maybe you should go on break for this," Pyrrha said as Jaune hung up and began to dial the number Taiyang had given them. "You and Weiss can take a table and talk to Ruby. I'll listen in from here in case anyone comes in."

"Good idea."

Weiss snatched the slip of paper out of Jaune's hand and headed for one of the little tables set along the storefront window. "You do your thing. I'll get us past the warden. I'm not waiting one _second _longer than I have to for this. And bring my coffee!" she called.

By the time Jaune made it over, Ruby was already on the line.

"Thank you," Weiss said, taking her coffee from him. "Now Ruby can explain to us exactly why the only person picking up her scroll and actually _talking to us _lately is a _police officer."_

"_Oh boy," _Ruby groaned. _"I said I was sorry…"_

"Apologies aren't explanations, _young Rose," _Weiss said; she smirked as Ruby made a strangled noise in response.

"_Okay! Okay! I'll talk. Just _never. Call me that. Again._ …So when we were at the Gunmetal, Coco and I noticed Yang across the street, and that was really weird because I knew Yang was supposed to be on a mission that night. So I figured I'd follow her, and then one thing led to another and we _might _have started a teeny-tiny…bar brawl…?"_

It was hard to say which of the three occupants of the Juniper Bakehouse looked more appalled.

"And…that's why the police have your scroll?" Jaune asked weakly.

"_Oh no. The police didn't get involved until last night…"_

* * *

_**A/N:**_ _**Point: an all-ages bar/club/concert venue thing sounds really weird and kind of like maybe it doesn't exist. Counterpoint: Gunmetal is a kind of bronze. *Looks pointedly at Buffy fans* brrrooonnzzze**_

_**my point is that it's not an unprecedented conceit and now it's an homage so there you go**_

_**Anyway fun fact, this was supposed to be Chapter 6. But then it insisted on overlapping with my planned Chapter 4, the events of which MUST precede my planned Chapter 5.**_

"_**That's fine," I said. "I wasn't going to get a long chapter by drawing from **_**Lars and the Cool Kids **_**anyway. Might as well mash it in with Chapter 4, I like interwoven narratives, let's do this."**_

_**But then Jaune decided he wasn't quite as behind on his canonical character development timeline as I thought he was and passed the conflict baton on to Pyrrha? Which somehow added like 4,000 words because it turns out Pyrrha Is Not Fine? And then that turned what should have been the B plot into the A plot? And now there's teen drama going on and I've had to slap a shipping tag on my gen fic, which, okay, kind of thought that if I accidentally'd a ship along the way it would be White Rose but here we are. (That's not to say you should necessarily expect White Rose or any other ship to happen, just that I'm aware of how ambiguously I seem to be writing their relationship. I don't really set out to write romance; it either happens or it doesn't, so I mostly avoid building the plot around who's in love with whom. We'll see what happens with those two and everyone else down the road.)**_

_**tl;dr C6 is C4 now which means C4 is going to be C5 and C5 got pushed out to C6.**_ _**Behold the A+ strategic mind behind the "quality content" you may or may not have subscribed for, I don't know how or if you choose to track fic updates, none of my business.**_

_**If you liked what you read, consider leaving a comment! If you in fact did not like what you read but have constructive ideas for improvement, may I further suggest ~*comments*~! Feedback is always appreciated. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: *stares mutely at word count***_

…_**Look, in my defense, fight scenes take up a lot of words, okay? At least the way I write them. I'm not **_**good **_**at writing them. I cut an entire extra scene to prune the numbers back! And this one chapter is **_**still**_** more than a quarter of the total length of the fic. Welp, I tried.**_

_**So why **_**is**_** Yang walking around the city at night if she's supposed to be out on a mission? It takes a little wheedling, but Ruby gets her answer and an offer to tag along as well. Turns out Yang's version of a night out involves a lot more property damage than Ruby's. Apparently, that's what makes it fun.**_

_**Bad pun title was mandatory 'cause Yang. It's not funny. I am not a funny person, I know this, I keep trying anyway, and now here we are. Let's move on to the actual story now. As always, I hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

**Ruby Without A Cause**

Hearing a noise behind her, Yang wheeled around and grabbed her would-be assailant, slamming them up against the nearest wall. They were an awfully small attacker, she realised as she moved. Some organics never grew very tall, or maybe she was facing something like an Aquamarine or—

"_Wait-Yang-it's-me-it's-me-I'm-sorry!"_

—a Rose Quartz, her fingers clutching at Yang's arms as her feet dangled a few inches above the pavement, held up by the front of her hoodie.

"Ruby!?"

"Hey." Ruby smiled weakly. "Could you maybe put me down now?"

"Oh, whoops!" Yang released her grip. Ruby grunted as her feet hit the ground, tugging at her hoodie until it lay right again. "Sorry! Didn't expect you to sneak up on me like that. Didn't expect you to be here at all, actually. …Why _are _you here?"

"To ask you that!" Ruby planted her hands on her hips. "Ozpin said he sent you on a mission!"

"Well…yeah." Yang scoffed, spreading her hands and looking around the dingy alley in which they stood. "What else would I be doing here? I'm patrolling."

"Patrolling."

"Yup."

"For Gem monsters."

"…Yup."

"In the _Industrial District."_

"Hey, you mock, but there's a spot a couple blocks from here where all the buildings are newer because some kind of freaky bullfrog thing flattened them like, a century ago." Yang pursed her lips and shrugged, as if to challenge Ruby to prove her wrong.

Ruby crossed her arms. "If he sent you here, that must mean there've been reports of monster activity in the area."

"Obviously, yeah."

"So he gave me the all-clear to spend the whole night basically right next door to where people have been seeing monsters."

"That's pretty on-brand for Ozpin," Yang pointed out.

"No it isn't! Letting me put _myself _in danger because I thought I could handle something I couldn't is on-brand for Ozpin! Letting me and a bunch of other people hang out inside the blast radius of potential disaster? He would have at _least _said something vague and cryptic about hoping it was worth it!"

"…Maybe he…didn't think about where teenagers usually go to have fun and…y'know…thought you'd be farther away than you were. Which was where, by the way?"

"The Gunmetal. It's a club," Ruby explained at Yang's blank look. Confusion morphed into delight.

"_Rubes!"_ She lunged forward, squeezing Ruby tight. "Aw, you're all grown up and going _clubbing!_ Your Quartz side is still goin' strong!"

"Yang," Ruby wheezed. "Air."

"Right, yeah, the oxygen thing." Yang backed off, ruffling Ruby's hair as she did so. Ruby scowled and brushed the wayward strands back into place.

"No hugging me when I'm being suspicious of you! You stand there and be accused!"

"Look, Ruby, I don't know what to tell you." Yang shrugged. "Who knows why Ozpin does anything? He's basically what would happen if a really pretentious riddle magically came to life. Like I'm supposed to understand his weird alien logic?"

"Wh—you're _all _aliens! _I'm _half-alien!"

"Nuh-uh!" Yang held her right forearm upright like she was going to pump her fist, slapping her Gemstone proudly. "This baby's a hundred percent Remnant-formed and finished, same as you."

"That doesn't—I'm _saying _I don't believe you!"

"Well that just hurts." Yang crossed her arms. "I thought we had a special bond, but here you are chewing me out for following orders. _Ours not to reason why, _Ruby."

Ruby appeared singularly unimpressed, arching a sceptical eyebrow. "Right. Because if there's one thing Yang Ametrine is known for, it's following every order, no hesitation. No questions asked. _Bliiiiind _obedience."

Yang froze. "Damn it," she sighed, slumping and shaking her head. "I dug myself too deep. I have been caught in my own web of lies!" She shook her fist at the sky.

"Aha!" Ruby pointed at her dramatically. "Now give up your secrets, deceiver!"

"Okay but first, for the record, no one ordered me to do anything," Yang said. "Oz asked me to patrol the border along Forever Fall and up near Beacon as a favour to him." She fidgeted anxiously with her hair. "Listen, you can_not _tell Qrow and Ozpin that I just blew off doing this thing for them. Please."

"Well—if you were asked to patrol, why didn't you just do it?" Ruby asked. "There must have been a reason."

"Yes and no?" Yang sighed. "Look, I know I joke about this kind of thing a lot, but…Ozpin's paranoid. _Actually _paranoid. Not in the 'jumps at his own shadow, triple-checks the locks' kind of way, I mean in the 'sees patterns that aren't there, convinces himself of conspiracy theories' way."

She looked down at her feet, her shoulders rolling forward. "I don't know if he's always been like that, or if the war or something before that got in his head and messed him up, but this happens _every time _he comes across something he can't explain right away. He shuts himself up in his room, buries himself in research and asks us all to do extra patrols while reminding us _over and over again _that it's 'probably nothing' but 'just in case'…and guess what, it's _always_ nothing."

"Isn't he just being careful, though?"

"Yeah, well, that brand of careful gets real old after four thousand years of it. I don't need to spend however many weeks or months it's going to be until Ozpin solves his new pet mystery constantly looking over my shoulder when he can't even tell me what I'm supposed to be looking _for."_ She sighed, a short, sharp sound of frustration. "If he had some solid proof to work from, I'd take this every bit as seriously as he wants, but I'm _so _over taking cues from his hyperactive danger-sense."

Ruby frowned. "But why _not _just patrol, if that'll help? Is it really that much extra work?"

"Ugh, it's work and it's a _drag," _Yang groaned. "Going over the same route for literally _hours _for no reason other than to make Ozpin feel better, when I can just say I did it and get the exact same result? No thanks. Besides, it's not like I'm not still working. I'm easily bored; I'm not actually _lazy._ Huge difference."

"What kind of work can you get done at—" Ruby checked her scroll. "Eight-twenty in the Industrial District?"

"Organic relations," Yang replied promptly.

"Do what now?"

Yang put a hand on her hip, tossing her hair and smiling. "What, you thought all I did was look amazing and punch things? I'll have you know that I am the social-networking expert of the family! Well, okay, I mean, your dad has the organic Huntsmen nailed down and Qrow keeps in touch with some of his old war buddies, but _I _keep us in touch with the locals. And the best place to do that is in bars, dives, and clubs. Preferably the ones on the wrong side of the tracks."

"When you say 'locals'…"

"Criminals," Yang admitted. "I mean criminals. _And _the people who have to put up with them. Ruby, Ruby." She put an arm around Ruby's shoulders. "Lemme paint you a picture. See, _we _have what you might call superpowers. And we use them to help people. Which makes us…"

"Awesome?"

"Yyyyyeah but also no. C'mon. _Helping people._ Using _superpowers."_

"Superheroes," Ruby breathed.

Yang snapped her fingers. "There it is! See? I _am _patrolling. I am making the rounds and doing what I can to make Vale a safer place." She opened her arms wide. "How is that not my job?"

"Um. Isn't that kind of…"

"Dangerous?"

"Illegal," Ruby finished. "I was gonna say illegal."

"_Pssh."_ Yang flapped a hand dismissively. "Only if I get caught."

"If I _had _said _dangerous, _would you have said 'Only if I get hurt'?"

"No," Yang said immediately, adding, "because I don't _get _hurt doing this. Gems don't usually have much of a reason to turn to crime, so I'm mostly dealing with organics. I have to work harder to keep from hurting them than to keep them from hurting me."

Ruby went quiet, considering.

"So…are you going to tell?" Yang asked tentatively.

"Take me with you."

"Come again?"

Ruby met her eyes, determined. "Take me with you. I want to see what you do! I want to help."

"I…I don't know, Ruby." Yang frowned, uncertain in a way Ruby rarely saw her. "I mean, _you_ could still get hurt."

It stung to hear that, but Ruby pushed past it. "Same as on normal missions, and even Dad let me go on one of those. You even said this wasn't as dangerous!"

"Well, yeah, but I'm a hard light construct and you're all…squishy." She crossed her arms. "But I mean, you _are _a Gem…and it's not like you've never been to a club before…"

Ruby waited.

"…Okay!" Yang decided, punching her fists together. "But first we need to get you something to wear."

Ruby looked down at herself. "What's wrong with this?"

"Jean shorts and sneakers?" Yang snorted. "This Gunmetalplace must be super low-key. We're gonna need to get you into something that'll let you blend in at the kind of places we're going. And you'll need to be able to show off your Gemstone, too."

It was hard to say if Ruby was hugging her_self_ defensively, or her hoodie. "But I like my clothes…"

"Hey. I promise I won't make you wear anything you aren't comfortable with, but we're not gonna be able to pass you off as anything but a human tween in that outfit." Yang shrugged. "It's not an insult. Just a fact. You wanna come with me or not?"

"I do!"

"Okay, then." Yang's form shimmered and rippled. Ruby averted her eyes before the moment of transformation itself; intellectually, she understood that the Gems' bodies were made up of light, but watching them break down all raw and formless was vaguely unsettling to her.

"Get on," she heard, and looked back in time to see a bright-gold dragon rear up on her hind legs, digging her talons into a brick wall. "We're going shopping."

Yang's lilac eyes looked down at her from high above; she twitched her tail, beckoning, and Ruby climbed up using her spines as handholds. Once she had a good grip, Yang eased her way up the wall and heaved her large body onto the rooftop, stretching her wings and rolling her long neck with a satisfied grunt.

"Ready?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder.

"Ready!" Ruby gave her a thumbs up before hunkering down, keeping her body low against Yang's back. Yang's wings snapped to their full extension; her legs tensed, and then with a powerful downbeat of her wings she sprung straight up into the sky, streaking off towards the east.

* * *

"Best part of flying to the mall?" Yang folded her hands behind her head, flashing a grin at Ruby. "No finding a place to park."

"I mean, it's really late. They're only open another few hours. There would have been plenty of spaces."

"Shush. Keep your logical thinking out of this. You just travelled on dragonback, you could be a little more excited!"

"It's not exactly the first time you've flown me somewhere…"

"For someone who _wanted _to come along, you're really dragging your feet on this."

"C'mon, don't be like that." Ruby folded her arms, looking around. "What's our budget look like?"

"Eh." Yang frowned defensively when Ruby stared at her. "What? Buy quality in the first place, save money on replacements down the road. It's the long game of fiscal responsibility."

"You know I'm still growing, right? Clothes aren't really an investment for me."

"Aw, that's Ruby Xiao Long the half-human talking! We're buying for Rubellite, pint-sized bundle of pure-Gem ass-kicking."

"'Rubellite'?" Ruby echoed.

"Well, yeah. I've never heard of one kind of Gem naming themselves after another kind, and you can't be Rose Quartz because everyone knows Summer and now her daughter is the only one on Remnant." Yang shrugged. "Plus this way I can call you 'Rubes' and no one'll think twice about it."

"Rubellite," Ruby said again, testing it this time.

"It's a Tourmaline subtype. They're bruisers, and they come in a lot of different shapes, including small and skinny." She winked at Ruby. "Round-cut Tourmalines are unusual, but I doubt anyone'll think too hard about it. I mean, why would anyone lie about what kind of Gem they were?"

"Isn't the fact that I'm, y'know, a pinky-white flesh colour going to give it away?"

"We'll make it work. Here, let's try this place."

* * *

Yang raised an eyebrow at the dress Ruby was trying on. "What's with all the ruffles?"

"They make the skirt poofy!" Ruby smoothed the black shell over its red organza crinoline. "They're all under the fabric. It's not like there are bows and frilly stuff all over it."

"I mean, it just seems kind of kid-y."

Wordlessly, Ruby pointed at the dress's neckline which, as specified, showed off her Gemstone. And a little more besides, or it would have, if there was much to show. Yang winced.

"Okay, so not _exactly _for kids, and now I have questions about why something like this is even in your size. Besides, what if you need to fight?"

"I can totally fight in a dress. This is a butt-kicking dress."

"With a cute little ballet skirt."

"_Combat _skirt!" Ruby shot back, crossing her arms and sticking out her tongue.

"Not a thing. And now I can't un-see how 'Baby's First Lingerie' that top is." Yang shuddered. "Eurgh. It's like a bad touch on my brain…"

"You show more skin than this all the time," Ruby pointed out.

"And I fully support you dressing however you want to. Just maybe if that's the direction you want to go you can do it three to five years from now, when you won't be giving an exclusive eyeful to a special kind of creep that I'll have to pummel into oblivion."

Ruby thought for a moment. She _really _liked the skirt, so… "I could get some kind of jacket to put over it."

Yang snapped her fingers. "Motorcycle jacket! Vertical zip, high collar. You can open it enough to show your Gemstone and then zip it back up. Congratulations; Rubellite just became a goth. How do you feel about combat boots?"

* * *

"I feel _amazing _about combat boots!" Ruby enthused, sticking a foot out and admiring it. "Do they make taller ones?"

"Not for your teeny little greenstick calves." Yang tapped her lips. "Maybe we should get you some stockings."

"Red or black?"

"Mm. Black."

"…Black with red glitter?" Ruby held up a pack, tilting it back and forth under the lights.

"Perfect!"

* * *

"So a good makeup job should help hide all that flesh-and-blood pore biz you've got going on." Yang smoothed foundation onto Ruby's face; the women's bathroom probably wasn't the best place for it, but there was no one left at the makeup counter. "Hey, take the jacket off real quick. The tutorial says it has to go down your neck and chest a little too."

"It feels kinda…heavy," Ruby said, grimacing.

"I guess because you're not used to it? I'm only putting a thin layer on. Rub some of it in; I don't want to poke your eye out or anything."

"So…what is the pencil for?"

"Uh. Well, I'm sure you thought that was a _total _non-sequitur, but…"

"_Do not put that pencil near my eyes, Yang!"_

* * *

"And the _pièce de resistance," _Yang announced grandly, putting the last touches on Ruby's pinky-red nails. "Ooh, they're so smooth and pretty! I wonder if I can paint my nails. Y'know, I've never actually tried? It's not like makeup, it should stick on its own. I think something in purple could be cool—really make my eyes pop, what do you think?"

"I _think_ you should give it a while before you put the words _eyes _and _pop _in the same sentence again," Ruby groused.

"Aw, c'mon, I didn't press that hard."

"Who invented eyeliner and where can I submit my opinion!?"

"Such a drama queen," Yang sighed, rolling her eyes as she screwed the cap back onto the nail polish. "There. Now you don't have organic-coloured nails anymore! Try not to chip them too bad."

"How long have we been here?" Ruby asked, a little plaintive. Yang checked her scroll.

"Only like an hour."

"Uuuuungh!" Ruby tipped her head back, so it hung over the back of the bench.

"Well, at least look at yourself before you complain." Yang grabbed her gently by the elbow and steered her back towards the women's restroom, standing her in front of the mirror once they were inside.

Ruby looked in, and Rubellite stared back, her reddish lips parted in awe. Yang had spread different shades of blusher over her face, neck, and ears; the end result was a Gem's smooth, flawless complexion just a little pinker than a human's would be. Heavier cosmetics coloured her hands and a little way up her wrists. Whatever Yang had done to her eyes made them stand out more, and the lines of her face looked sharper, cleaner. Older.

Ruby had begun to feel uncertain about her disguise, her enthusiasm waning during the far-too-lengthy process of applying makeup. But what she saw in the mirror was not a human child playing dress-up and caked in cosmetics. It—_she—_was a Gem who happened to look a little bit like a young teenage girl. Even next to Yang, the genuine article, she was convincing.

"I'm an artist," Yang declared. "Hey, do you think any of your friends will let me give them makeovers? This was fun."

Ruby grinned at her reflection, giving a little twirl. "I think this is going to work."

"Ready to put it to the test?"

"Let's do it!"

* * *

The bouncer let Yang pass without a word, but held up a hand as Ruby went to follow her.

"Nice try. No."

"Dude, she's not underage," Yang said. "Trust me. Go on, _Rubellite,_ show him."

Still looking sceptical, the bouncer held out a hand, clearly expecting an ID card. Instead Ruby partially unzipped her jacket, tapping her fingernails against her Gemstone with a dull _tink _sound as her heart pounded. "See?" she said, gripping the edges and tugging gently. It didn't budge.

"Gems can't be kids, man," Yang pointed out. "Don't know what to tell you."

The bouncer looked from Ruby's face to her Gemstone and back. He nodded slowly and stepped aside, waving her through. She thought she might faint from relief, wobbling slightly as she passed him. A grin crept over her face as the anxiety faded, elation sliding in to replace it, and Yang elbowed her gleefully.

"What'd I tell you!" she crowed—softly, with a glance back at the bouncer as they stepped up to the door of the club. Ruby could already hear the bass pounding, and as they entered she felt it in the soles of her feet and the bones of her jaw and right in the centre of her chest, like a second heartbeat, driving and alive.

"Is it always this loud?" she asked, wincing a little; strobe lights slanted into her eyes. The club was dimly lit, strip lighting set along the edges of the large central room with some extra bulbs over the bar she could see down below, but those were the only steady light sources. The rest was a riot of flashing colour striping the black-and-white chequered dance floor.

"You bet it is!" Yang spread her arms wide, half-shouting to be heard over the music. "This is it, Rubes! The sacred hall of having fun where we drink, dance, and don't look too close at what anyone else is doing!" She dropped her arms and fixed Ruby with a serious look. "Only the first thing doesn't apply to you and the last thing goes double."

"Got it!" Ruby pointed over the gantry railing, across the dance floor. "Why's the DJ wearing a costume bear head?"

"Because rave culture is super weird _and I love it._ C'mon, let's go down to the bar."

The bartender's eyes widened slightly as he saw them approach. "Ah, _sh—"_

The music reached a crescendo, obscuring whatever else he had to say, and Yang grinned at him as she slid onto a bar stool. "Junior! How ya been?"

"_Peachy."_ Junior smiled tightly, picking up a rocks glass. "The usual?"

Yang winked, clicking her tongue and pointing a finger gun at him. "And the virgin kind for my friend here—you'll love it," she assured Ruby.

"Oh good. There's more of you. Coming right up." Junior snorted and turned away, grabbing another glass and setting them side by side, reaching for a bottle labelled _Crème des fraises._ Ruby leaned towards Yang.

"He doesn't seem to like you very much…"

"Nah, that's just Junior. He's like that with all the regulars."

"Sunrise," Junior said curtly, clunking a glass down in front of Yang. "Dry," as he set the other before Ruby. He caught sight of something over her shoulder and smiled broadly. "Hey-_hey,_ 'Daro! Long time no see, you old bastard! Don't tell me—neat whiskey coming up, top shelf! Nah, don't worry, I've got you."

Ruby eyed Yang sceptically. The Ametrine shifted uncomfortably, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, so I _may _have thrown a guy over the bar and busted up a bunch of Junior's stock a few months ago and _apparently _he isn't over that yet. Whoops."

"_Yang!"_

"What?" Yang grabbed the stirrer-straw in her drink and swirled it, blending the rosy liquid in the bottom into the orange juice on top. She put the glass to her lips and tipped some of the peachy drink back. "He had it coming, trust me."

"Did you at least pay Junior back?"

"Hell no!" At Ruby's scandalized look, Yang gestured broadly at the interior of the club. "Look around, Rubes. How many guys do you see dressed like the bouncer out front—suit, red sunglasses, hats?"

"Um…there's a lot of them."

"Yeah, well, they aren't private security. Junior—his real name's Hei Xiong, and he's so mobbed up it's ridiculous. This place does a lot of legitimate business, but it's a front too, and those guys in the suits are enforcers. Sometimes he hires 'em out to other criminals who need extra guns. He's raking in the lien and he's not too picky about where it comes from. Just keep that in mind before you start feeling too sorry for him."

"Oh." A little taken aback, Ruby stirred up her own beverage and took a drink. "Mmm! This is really good!"

"Strawberry Sunrise. Drink of the gods."

"So if this place is so sketchy, why are we here? …And giving the owner money?"

"Think of it as the literal cost of doing metaphorical business. Who comes to a mob bar?"

"Mobsters?"

Yang clinked their glasses together. "Got it in one. This is the best place to get a bead on anything shady going down."

"Okay. So we sit here and wait."

"Well, we could dance too, you know." Yang shifted anxiously, fingers tapping the bar along to the music's beat. "Mingle."

"I was just thinking I could use some exercise," said a new voice. Yang's eyes lit up, while Ruby felt a shiver go down her spine, looking at the girl who had slipped away from the crowd and quite silently come to stand behind Yang. "What about you?"

For a moment, Ruby thought she was being addressed; she opened her mouth, but before she could say anything she heard the same voice from behind her. "Why not. It's been awhile."

"Never mind," Yang said cheerfully, knocking back the rest of her drink. "Sitting and waiting worked like a charm! This is a new record. I gotta bring you along more often!"

She turned to face the girl behind her, and Ruby scrunched as close to Yang as she could get without leaving her seat. Now that she could see the girls clearly, she realised they weren't _girls _at all, but two small, young-faced Gems with identical features. The one on the left, who'd spoken first, wore a white dress. Her Gemstone was set on the outside of her right shoulder, her skin bright green banded with dark. Her expressionless—twin? Could Gems _be _twins?—was the inverse, bright bands on dark, Gemstone on the left shoulder, dressed in black. They had the same dark, almost black green hair and luminescent green eyes, and their banded green Gemstones were mirror images.

"Malachites?" she hazarded, earning the attention of the lighter Gem.

"Melanie," she said.

"Miltia," said her darker twin. They each placed the hand of their Gemstone arm on their hips in eerie synchronisation.

"Just trying to get it right, are you introducing yourselves or saying each other's names as like, the out-loud version of the 'let's do this' nod?" Yang asked, leaning back against the bar. "It's just so _awkward _to call out the wrong name, you know? But I guess you two are probably used to that, I mean, _wow._ Did you literally form in the exact same spot?"

"I'm surprised you've never run into the Malachite twins before, considering you make a hobby out of pissing off the worst possible people."

"Oh, Junior," Yang sighed, tilting her head to glance at him out of the corner of her eye. "Did you hire Gem mercenaries just for me? You shouldn't have."

"I'd really like to say it isn't personal, but congratulations." Junior smiled mirthlessly. "You're officially just that annoying."

"Have I _really_ made the kind of problems for you that warrant taking out a hit on me?"

"A hit? No. A good beating to put your head straight, eh." Junior shrugged. "My patrons come here with certain expectations, like privacy, a lack of judgement, and a little bit of breathing room. You coming in here and throwing your weight around all the time, well, that puts kind of a damper on things." He braced his hands on the bar, leaning forward and giving Yang a plastic little smile while he stared her down. "So the girls here, they're going to pop you and your little friend and drop your stones down a hole where you can think some nice, deep thoughts about your future. And how it isn't going to involve my business."

Ruby froze as she considered that. _Would _they be able to poof her? What would they do if they realised she was part-human—trust that she'd keep quiet to keep Yang out of trouble, or—oh no, _was she in a mafia thriller?_

Yang didn't look worried, though. She didn't look very impressed, either, snorting as she leaned in and crossed her arms, her face inches from Junior's. "Practice that one in the mirror?"

"He didn't say you'd have backup," Melanie said, giving Ruby a once-over. "Maybe this'll actually be a challenge."

"Oh boy," Ruby squeaked; Yang sighed and turned around, propping her elbows against the bar.

"Come on, ladies, I like a good fight as much as the next Quartz, but let's be reasonable. Who really loses if we trash this place? I'm pretty sure your boss's insurance won't cover anything we do in self-defense against the thugs _he _hired to rough _us _up."

Melanie held up a finger. "Client, not boss." Another. "Mercs, not thugs." And a third. "Who says you're going to last long enough to make a mess?"

"Wait, no, we agreed you'd take this outside—!"

Junior ducked beneath the bar as Miltia sprang forward like a tiger, sharp, claw-like blades materialising at her wrists. Ruby yelped and dove off her stool, just barely remembering to tuck and roll as she'd been taught when she hit the ground.

_I did it!_

She didn't have time to revel in her success, though, getting to her feet and summoning her weapon just in time to catch Miltia's next blow on the rifle's barrel, her claw gauntlets finding purchase briefly and then slipping off. Ruby kicked out, but Miltia twirled away before her foot could make contact. The hybrid took advantage of the brief respite to will her weapon to shift into the scythe that had seen her safely through her first real battle.

"I'm out," said one of the bar patrons nearest her, slapping a pre-paid lien card down and making a hasty exist. The rest were quick to follow suit.

Yang hadn't so much jumped from her seat as pulled it out from under herself, ducking her head and swinging the stool at Melanie seat-first as the smaller Gem lashed out with a stiletto-heeled kick, the sharpened edges of her heal ripping the faux-leather and catching on the plasticky stuffing inside. Yang threw her weight behind the stool, tipping Melanie off-balance as she released it and leapt forward, gauntlets already forming around her wrists and hands. The crowd of clubgoers finally realised something was wrong as Melanie stumbled back into a pack of them; a wave of urgency swept from that group through the rest, and they receded from the area around the bar like a tide rolling out.

Melanie extricated her foot and dropped low to the ground, one leg bent and the other extended. Before Yang could drop on her, Miltia ploughed into her from the side, knocking her to the floor. Yang rolled as she hit, springing to her feet and dancing away from the Malachites as she dropped into a boxing stance, knees bent, feet apart, and fists raised.

Ruby, ignored now, swung her scythe towards Miltia's middle in a blur of enhanced speed, knowing that as long as she avoided the Gemstone the Malachite would be effectively unharmed. Melanie didn't let it get that far, though. She braced her hands on the floor and pivoted so that her extended leg swept Ruby's in a graceful high arc, mercifully striking toe-first. Ruby gasped and dissolved into petals just as she was struck, saving herself from a nasty tumble; the tip of her scythe just grazed Miltia above her hip, tearing her dress, before it vanished along with its wielder.

Ruby streaked towards Yang, re-forming herself next to the Ametrine, who gave her an approving nod and a wide grin. "Let's show them how we do things in our house!"

"Like a kinda messed-up sitcom with no laugh track?"

"Wh—_no!_ Rubes, I meant we should beat the crap out of 'em!" Yang aimed a gauntlet low behind her and fired as she sprang forward, swinging her other fist in a mean right hook. This forced her body to twist just slightly in midair, so that when Miltia tried to shift and retaliate she missed Yang entirely, while the Ametrine's fist clipped her chin just as the gauntlet fired, sending the Malachite flying.

"You make our home life sound very violent and upsetting!" Ruby called. "Oop!"

Melanie had picked herself off the floor as Ruby retreated and Yang readied her next move, and now she surged forward. Ruby hauled back on her scythe, preparing to swing, but just as Melanie came into range she tucked into the start of a forward roll, taking her weight onto her hands and slashing both of her bladed feet towards Ruby like scythes of her own.

Or a blender, Ruby thought, taking that idea and running with it; once again she burst into petals, but this time she let herself get swept up by Melanie's attack, whirling around, propelled through the air by the force of the Malachite's powerful kicks. Melanie couldn't move quite fast enough to knock Ruby back into a more solid form, but as her feet reached the ends of their arcs Ruby re-formed on her own, her weapon vanished back into her Gemstone. She hooked an arm around each of Melanie's legs as she fell, her weight and momentum enough to pull the Malachite over with her, her back smacking hard against the dance floor. Ruby caught a glimpse of her features, twisted in rage, the strobe lights sending eerie flickers of vivid colour over her face.

The music still pounded on, even with the club's clientele streaming towards the doors; they didn't sound terribly alarmed, so either they were used to this or most of them hadn't quite worked out what was going on. If Yang was a regular here, Ruby figured, it could really go either way. They weren't the only ones who needed to make an escape, though; Ruby could feel Melanie's legs tensing, so she phased again, shooting straight up in a swirl of petals and re-forming with her rifle in hand, aiming it squarely at Melanie's chest and pulling the trigger.

Melanie didn't have time to get her feet under her. Her eyes went wide. She loosed the start of a furious scream, and her body imploded in a burst of light, her Gemstone clattering to the floor.

"Shit, shit, shit," Junior muttered, poking his head out and surveying the scene with dismay. "Hey!" He gestured towards one of the guards; they had come to hover uncertainly near the bar. Guarding him, Junior would like to think, but he had a sinking feeling that it was probably a fifty-fifty split between that and not wanting to run afoul of Yang and her phase-shifting friend.

"Get out there and help Miltia! Figure out how much they're actually getting _paid _after this stunt," he growled, settling back into cover and crossing his arms. "I say take it outside, you damn sight _take it outside…"_

Ruby dashed up to the DJ's turntable. Like his boss, he'd taken shelter behind his workstation; the playlist rolled on without his input. She leaned over and bopped the top of his costume bear head to get his attention. He started and tilted his head back, blank eyes surveying her.

"Hold out your hands," she said, and the DJ did so automatically. She dropped Melanie's Gemstone into his cupped palms. "This is Melanie Malachite. She'll regenerate sometime between an hour and a week from now, depending on how picky she is! She's not very nice, but she works for your boss so you should be careful with her anyway."

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye; turning her head, she noticed some of Junior's mob guys converging on the centre of the dance floor, where Yang and Miltia were trading blows.

"Also it's the right thing to do! Tell her I'm sorry I had to poof her gotta-go-bye!"

Ruby summoned her scythe without really thinking as she ran towards the brawl. Junior's men were in the way; two were flanking Yang as Miltia waled on her defences from the front, while a third was coming up on her from behind; Yang jabbed her elbow back into his solar plexus, and he went down, wheezing. Ruby saw another in the shadows of the gantry above, gun out and pointed right at Yang; thinking quickly, she phased and darted towards him, re-forming in midair and swinging her scythe.

The unearthly weapon tore straight through one of the lighting rigs, terrestrial metals yielding and crumpling before a blade designed to bite into alloys for which Remnant had no equivalent. Sparks flew from severed cables as the whole array dropped towards the gunman. He saw it coming and shouted, diving out of the way moments before it crashed down on the point where he'd been standing, rattling the whole gantry. Light flared bright and hot before what little stable lighting there was in the club went dark with the heavy _shunk _sound of a breaker popping, only the strobes over the dance floor still going.

Ruby winced as she caught the gantry railing to stop her own fall, grimacing with the effort as she pulled herself up and over it one-handed, still holding tightly onto her scythe. Yang, for her part, saw her opportunity and took it: the two remaining enforcers had faltered just slightly at the thunderous sound of the rig coming down and shaking the building, and now with the lights all but gone they were blind, all the more so for their sunglasses. Yang got them both with rabbit punches, one to the jaw and one to the forehead. Both went down.

Unfortunately, she'd had to break off from Miltia to manage it, and the Malachite pressed forward with renewed ferocity, the cold, forbidding expression on her face conveying her fury more clearly than a scowl ever could have. Her arms were nearly a blur as she jabbed at Yang with fists and claws and elbows, whirling like a windmill. Yang blocked or dodged every blow without much of a struggle, but she couldn't find an opening to strike back. Primary colours danced over them, yellow-and-brown and green-and-black rendered nearly identical in the chaos.

"Got her!" Ruby hollered, re-forming a bare yard away from Miltia.

Miltia wheeled and lunged inside the reach of Ruby's scythe; Ruby stumbled back, but Miltia grabbed the haft of the scythe and pulled, drawing one of her fists back for a punch that would send her claw right through Ruby's face. Her pupils were blown wide.

Oh yeah. She'd _definitely _seen what Ruby had done to Melanie.

"_You do not touch her!"_

Yang's hair went up like a bonfire, her eyes blazing just as bright; she barrelled into Miltia, ripping the scythe from both her grip and Ruby's in the process. One, two, three rapid-fire punches to Miltia's stomach and the Malachite went sailing through the air, slamming into the wall and dissipating in a burst of light.

Ruby dropped to the floor, panting. Yang stood stock-still for a moment, the flames receding from her hair; then she turned to Ruby and offered her hand, helping the hybrid up.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Ruby looked around; nothing and no one, just a wrecked club. "We did it!"

Yang laughed, lightly punching her shoulder. "Of course we did! Holy crap, Ruby, you were awesome!"

The music cut off, and they looked over to see the DJ standing frozen, bear mask staring straight at them, hand still on the turntable's power switch.

"Oh! Wait-wait-wait!" Ruby called as they started to back away; she ran to get Miltia's Gemstone, jogging back to the turntable and holding it out to the DJ. "This is Melanie's, uh…this is Miltia. Same deal. Please take care of them both!"

Yang, meanwhile, had headed back to the bar, peering over it. "Junior's gone!" she called. "Must've run out after the lights went." She straightened up. "We need to get going too. No way the cops aren't on their way by now."

She grinned at the DJ, throwing him a sloppy salute. "DJ Bear Head! Excellent work as always. Keep it up!"

The DJ gave her a tentative thumbs-up with the hand that wasn't holding Miltia's Gemstone.

"Alright, but seriously, we gotta scoot. C'mon, Rubes."

"Bye!" Ruby said, waving as she ran after Yang. "It was nice meeting you, Mr. Bear Head!"

"I feel like if that's _not _his stage name it should be. Gotta live your brand, you know?"

"I still don't get it…"

"Right, but you aren't questioning it anymore either." Yang slapped a hand onto Ruby's back, between her shoulder-blades, as they walked out the doors of the club and took a right, walking swiftly away from the sound of sirens closing in. "I think an all-out bar-breaking brawl is enough action for one night, though. So now comes the hard part: sneaking back into the house without anyone noticing."

"Oh," Ruby said. "Is it still before midnight?"

Yang pulled out her scroll and checked. "Huh. Yup."

"Then I don't need to sneak. I'll tell Ozpin I'm running a little bit later than I thought and I'm on my way back."

"Oh, left a big window for yourself, huh? Look at you, already covering your bases like a pro. Don't forget to change into the clothes you left the house in. That's how I always used to get caught when I was younger. Try explaining that you just happened to decide to hang around the house in a Rococo ballgown…"

Ruby practically glowed, basking in Yang's pride. "So do you do this a lot?"

"Eh." Yang shrugged. "Just when I'm feeling restless, usually. Probably a bit more often while Ozpin's doing his whole 'sky is falling' thing, like I said." She looked down at Ruby and smiled. "You thinking you wanna come along? You did good, but I thought you might've got your fill."

"My heart's still going fast," Ruby admitted. "I'm not sure if I'm scared or excited. I think maybe both? But I helped, right?"

"Uh, _yeah_, you helped! You basically soloed a full-fledged Gem! And that thing with the lights? Inspired!" Yang held out a fist. "Gimme some love, substrate-sister!"

Ruby laughed as they fist-bumped. "Substrate-sister?"

"Iunno. Sounded better than matrix-sister. We came from the same rock, is what I'm saying." Yang grinned, folding her arms behind her head. "Remnant Quartzes, kicking ass and taking names."

"Yeah," Ruby decided, looking up at the sky. "We need to do this again."

* * *

"Why do actions have consequences?" Ruby lamented, her forehead resting firmly on the counter.

Entering the kitchen, Ozpin opened his mouth, but Qrow lifted a hand to stop him.

"Don't—don't actually answer that. That's not the voice of someone who wants to hear existential philosophy right now."

"Well—"

"Or physics. Basically no one wants either of those things explained to them in the morning. But it _is_ morning, and you're actually downstairs." Qrow raised his eyebrows pointedly. "Nice."

Ozpin laughed, ducking his head and smiling ruefully. "Yes, well. Contrary to popular opinion, I can in fact take a hint. I see your late night has caught up with you, young Rose."

Ruby merely groaned in reply.

Qrow leaned over and nudged her cereal bowl towards her pointedly. "Hey, short stuff. Eat your fibre and cow juice before it gets all mushy. You hate that."

"Let's just add 'cow juice' to the list of phrases you shouldn't ever say," Ozpin said pleasantly, leaning against the counter. "Starting now."

"And after I heated yours up with bean paste and dried-up grass sap!" Qrow set a mug of cocoa down in front of Ozpin, who slipped his fingers under the handle immediately and gave Qrow a knowing look.

"You weren't planning on using this to lure me out of my workroom, by any chance, were you?"

"What's with everyone asking questions they don't want answered this morning? …My fall-back plan involved Zwei and a smoke bomb. It's a good thing you came down."

Ruby lifted her head and pulled her bowl a little closer still, picking up the spoon and starting to eat.

"I think she might need the other kind of bean drink," Ozpin noted, seeing the dark circles under Ruby's eyes.

"Tai says we aren't supposed to let her have too much of that until she's older."

"How much is too much?"

"Y'know, he wasn't specific. Ruby, you want coffee?"

"_Yes."_

"She speaks," Ozpin observed. Ruby swivelled her head slowly to glare at him. He sipped his cocoa, unperturbed.

"She tries to stab you with that spoon, I'm not helping you. So if you're down here, does that mean you figured out what's up with your whatchamacallit?"

"Not in the slightest, but I _have _run out of ways to prod at it. I'll give it to the end of the week in case anyone else has better luck with the samples I've sent out, and then we'll do things your way."

"We could just skip right to the last step. You'd get your answers faster."

"I've explained my reasoning and you agreed with it. We wait." Ruby instinctively cringed a little at the imperious note that slipped into Ozpin's voice. Qrow simply nodded as he pulled down a mug for Ruby, no less at ease now than he'd been all morning.

"Hey, look, three of my four favourite people actually in the same place for once. How crazy is that? Yeah, I didn't know that happened anymore. Right? Morning, everyone."

Yang had in fact been talking to Zwei, whom she was carrying bodily against her chest. She bent down and set him on the floor, and he trotted immediately over to Ruby's chair, plopping himself down by her dangling feet.

"_Passive_ aggression." Qrow nodded in an assessing fashion, pouring off Ruby's coffee. "Bold new look for you, firecracker. I thought you just had regular aggression on a slider switch."

"Shut up and coffee me, coffee-man," Yang ordered, slumping into a chair on the other side of Ruby from where Ozpin had propped himself. Ruby snatched her own drink out of Qrow's hands with a mumbled 'thank you' and was already pouring some of the hot, super-sweet beverage down her throat.

"What am I, your—? …Uh…"

"Barista," Ozpin supplied.

Yang smirked. "Real snappy comeback there."

"Sorry, I'm just so distracted by all the stuff I could get done in the time _you two_," he pointed between Yang and Ozpin, "spend _consuming _things served to you by people with weird-ass job titles like _barista."_

"You drink," Ozpin pointed out mildly.

"Only alcohol and only as a social ritual."

"You remember social rituals, right, Oz?" Yang chimed in, leaning forward on the counter to peer around Ruby.

Ozpin gestured around with his mug, indicating all of them. "Society." He raised it towards her in a toast, smiling. "Ritual."

Yang exchanged a dubious look with Ruby, rolling her eyes; she was still smiling, though.

"You can fix it up yourself," Qrow said, plunking a mug of black coffee in front of Yang. "I can't keep track of all the weird latte trends you latch onto."

"Oh, just wait until pumpkin spice season," Yang said pityingly.

"Abominations," Ozpin muttered into his mug. Yang flipped him off behind Ruby's back. "And on _that _note…Yang, I'm sorry to ask you this, but would you mind terribly patrolling again tomorrow night? Qrow's already agreed to handle tonight."

"Uh, when did I do that, exactly?"

"When you ran out the door yesterday apologising for not being able to take last night and then added, and I quote, _'but hey, next time'_." Ozpin smiled at him. "It is now 'next time'."

"Figure of speech?" Qrow tried. Ozpin continued looking at him and smiling in silence. "Yeah, okay."

"Sure, I don't mind," Yang said, exchanging a look with Ruby, who gave her a covert thumbs-up.

"Thank you." It was hard to tell, but Ruby thought Ozpin relaxed ever so slightly as Yang and Qrow voiced their agreement. "I doubt there's anything to worry about—but just in case."

* * *

"Yang he's coming toward you!" Ruby hollered. She spotted a fire escape and ran for it, giving herself just a little boost with her petals as she jumped and caught the ladder, hauling herself up. Her body ached all over, but this was getting easier; she was still stronger and faster than a full-human her age would be, and she had her powers and her weapon. Speaking of which.

She summoned her rifle, setting the butt against her shoulder and aiming carefully. Their target was running towards the far end of the alley but looking around wildly, having heard Ruby well enough to be certain Yang was waiting for him at the other end. He tried to slip down a little side passage to his right, but Ruby loosed a shot into the brickwork above his head, confident she was aiming too high to risk hitting him; he wheeled around on the spot and ran further down the alley, spotting another turn-off to the left and diving down.

Ruby grinned and lowered the rifle. He was heading right towards Yang's real location. She'd better get down there.

* * *

Waking up felt like clawing her way free of quicksand, but the ringing of her scroll demanded her attention. Ruby flailed her hand around on her bedside table, finding the device blindly and opening it, putting it to her ear.

"'lo?" she slurred.

"_Ruby! Where have you been!? I haven't wanted to push it but it's been over a week since I saw you last and I don't think it's clingy of me to expect you more than _monosyllables _when I reach out!"_

"…Weiss?"

"_Yes! I've _been _calling you! I'm starting to…"_

She tried to pay attention. She really did. Weiss was a good friend, Weiss deserved someone to listen when she talked. But Ruby was just…so tired. Too tired to care about the incredulous look Qrow had given her when she'd announced she was taking an afternoon nap, and she was barely a half hour _into _that nap and…

…and Weiss had been talking this whole time and Ruby was not up for this.

"Weiss?" Ruby interrupted her. "I'm s—"

She yawned.

"I'm sorry, but I'mma have to call you back…I'm not really…yeah. Mmbye."

She hung up on a startlingly loud burst of sound. Shouting, she processed a moment later, as she was starting to drift off. Ooh, Weiss was not happy. She'd have to fix that.

Later. When she was…

done…

sleeping…

* * *

"Okay, so this guy is pretty jumpy," Yang warned, stopping by one of the storefronts. "He knows me, but I don't want him to spook him by bringing you in. So I'm going to go around to the basement door and see if he'll let me in to talk. You okay waiting for me out here?"

"No problem." Ruby looked up and down the street. "Looks pretty quiet."

"Usually is. This part of town isn't really dangerous—part of why I don't come here much. Worst thing you've got to worry about is boredom. Alright, I'll be back in a few. Half an hour, tops."

"I'll be here!" Ruby promised. Yang waved vaguely as she walked between the shops, disappearing down a set of concrete stairs. There was the sound of a knock, an opening door. Hushed voices. Then the door closed, and Yang did not reappear, so Ruby settled in to wait.

A few minutes had already gone by when something caught her eye. Something she definitely wasn't expecting to see in what Yang had identified as a safe part of town—black suits, hats, and coloured sunglasses on a quintet of muscle-bound men striding down the street.

_Junior's enforcers!_

Ruby ducked down the alley, hugging the wall; she watched around the corner as the mob guys approached one of the still-lit storefronts.

"From Dust 'Til Dawn," she read aloud, softly. _A Dust shop? Why are Junior's people interested in Dust? They must already have enough for all their mob stuff; don't these people usually have those kinds of connections already worked out?_

Then one of the figures broke ranks. He was dressed differently from the others, in a white coat and black bowler. Ruby could see a shock of ginger-red hair partially covering his face. No, she realised with a start, as he stepped under the lights at the shop's entrance, he wasn't a redhead. He actually had bright orange hair, and pale orange skin to match. He was a _Gem._

Yang had mentioned something about Junior hiring out his guards—which meant they weren't guards right now. They were _henchmen, _and the mystery Gem they were escorting must have been the Baddie-in-Chief!

Ruby wavered as she watched the Gem and his henchmen enter. Should she get Yang? It might spook her contact if she did, but this felt like the sort of thing that Yang would want to know about. But at the same time, it was only one Gem and five organics—humans, from the looks of them, so they wouldn't be able to surprise her with any Faunus abilities either. She'd handled Melanie on her own; why should this Gem be any different? He didn't look like he was dressed for fighting, even if he could summon a weapon besides the cane he carried.

…Which really wasn't all that reassuring.

"Mmmmn…" Ruby hopped between one foot and the other, mentally debating. But by then the Gem was already at the shop counter, she could see him through the window, and his cane was resting _just so _atop the glass as he addressed the shopkeeper, who cringed subtly away. The henchmen were already making their way through the store and gathering up the stock, except for one that was guarding the door. She was out of time.

The sound of the shop's bell was nearly lost under the yelp of the door guard, and the scene inside the shop essentially froze. Junior's contractors turned to look at the door, even the old shopkeeper leaning around to try and see what was going on. Only Torchwick remained as he was—almost. He afforded himself the luxury of letting his eye fall shut and letting out a quiet sigh.

"Why do these things never go smooth?" he asked the store at large, finally turning around; he twirled his cane under his arm and popped the sight on it, just to make it very clear to the shopkeeper that he was in fact staring down a barrel and shouldn't try anything. He found himself looking at a diminutive red Gem—feminine, if the dress was anything to go by, and holding a scythe, the blade angled behind her.

"Maybe it's time for a career change," she suggested.

"And while we're at it, why is that every Gem who gets it through their head to play vigilante thinks they have to quip like an action hero? Good banter isn't something you can force, Red. It's a gift. You have it or you don't." He shook his head, gesturing incredulously. "And then you just stand there and let the bad guy talk at you, like, what is…?"

The Gem narrowed her eyes and clenched her fingers tighter on her scythe. "If you leave quietly now, nothing has to happen. You don't want any trouble, and I don't want anyone to get hurt, so please just go."

"Or you'll make us go, right. Ugh." Torchwick shook his head. "Okay, guess we're doing this." He waved the enforcers forward with an impatient flick of his fingers. "Get her."

He sighed quietly as the guards went in—out, rather, as Red backed up hastily, swinging her scythe around to guard with the back edge. "I blame the comic books," he confided in the shopkeeper, leaning back against the counter and glancing over his shoulder. "Used to be you could count on Gems to show a little common sense, go with the flow, throw any messy little heroic impulses towards fighting monsters and keep out of civic affairs. I mean, look at that."

Torchwick gestured broadly as Red jabbed the butt of her scythe-haft into an enforcer's gut, then had to stumble back to avoid a brass-knuckled swing from one of his fellows.

"She has no idea how to fight organics with that thing, and you know what that means? She's new to it, and she's a soft touch; doesn't wanna kill them. A Huntress cracking under the pressure of her profession becoming obsolete sometime in the next few centuries, I'd stake a fortune on it. Oh, hey, one down. Only four to go, Little Red, keep it up!" he called; the Gem gave him a wild-eyed, startled look through the shop window as she continued fighting the guards off.

"Agh, she's young, too." Torchwick shook his head. "Homeworld trains its soldiers better than that. Even if she wasn't a fighter pre-defection, the Rebellion would have made her one and a damn good one, too. I mean, she _could _have been neutral, but I can't see a hero complex like that hanging out on the sidelines."

He frowned, watching two more enforcers fall in quick succession. "Must be one of the leftovers that popped out of the ol' Kindergarten that first millennium or so, never applied for formal training. If this is where she peaked, you'd think someone would've shattered her by now. Oh, _damn _it," as a fourth went down, "what is the _point _of hired help if they're just going to fold like cardboard the second some rhinestone with an oversized farming tool gets a bug up her ass about truth, justice, and the Remnan way?"

The shop window shattered, the fifth of Torchwick's hired men flying through and skidding to a stop at his feet, groaning.

"I'd just like to point out, for the record, that _she's _the one who caused actual property damage," he told the shopkeeper, who continued to direct a silent, stony glare at him, only the set of his mouth and the faint tremor in his hands betraying his fear. "Welp, you know what they say about getting things done right…"

Torchwick stepped over the crumpled, moaning enforcer and strode unhurriedly to the door, pointedly opening it and stepping through despite the empty window frame beside it. The cheery jingle of the bell echoed as he came to a stop in front of Red, who was nearly doubled over her scythe, panting hard.

"Did I misread this situation?" Torchwick raised an eyebrow, looking her over sceptically, leaning on his cane. "Are you a Gem who thinks she needs to breathe, or a human on a really creepy cosplay kick?"

The pinkish red of her cheeks grew darker, and she scowled, yanking the zipper down on her jacket just far enough to show the gleam of a Gemstone set high on her chest. Torchwick had seen his share of false Gemstones for one reason or another over the millennia; he knew the real deal on sight.

"I _am _a Gem," Red said, lifting her chin defiantly. "And so are you, so why do this? Why steal from organics? What could they have that you don't? That you think you need to _take _from them?"

"Uh." Torchwick gestured behind him, up at the shop's sign. "Large quantities of Dust?"

Red made a frustrated noise, and Torchwick shrugged. "Ask a stupid question…"

"We're supposed to protect them!"

Aha. Huntress. Nailed it. "Red, Red, Red. Someone's been supping on Rebel propaganda." He _tsked. _"Not all of us signed up in the name of the great Rose Quartz's environmentalist agenda _or_ her wannabe utopia. Some of us didn't sign up at all. We just did what we had to do to survive."

She looked at him like she was seeing some strange, mythical creature. "You…weren't a part of the Rose Rebellion?"

Torchwick snorted. He pulled his hair away from his face, and Red stared at the square orange Gemstone in his eye socket with fascination. "I'm a _Zircon._ It's a cushy gig. I wasn't exactly suffering under the old regime. Why would I wanna tear it down?"

He released the strands, tilting his wrist in an exaggerated motion to check his watch—call him old-fashioned, but it was classier than checking his scroll and a sight easier than digging the thing out in the middle of a job. "And speaking of the law and those who practice it…or in this case enforce it…I think that's just about all the time we have. _Now."_ Torchwick spun his cane up, popping the sight and letting Red get a good, long look as he began to circle around her.

"Congratulations, I am officially foiled. You have thwarted my wicked intentions. I have stolen nothing, Mr. Strong and Silent over there is still in one piece, and my associates will shortly be on their way to jail. You won! So why don't we both call it quits and get out before the police show up, eh?"

Red gripped her scythe firmly, turning to keep him in her sights as he backed away. "Zircon—"

"Torchwick," he corrected her. "What? I said I wasn't involved with the Rebellion. That doesn't automatically make me a hardline traditionalist. Turns out I needed a little anarchy to flourish. Who knew?"

"…You know you just told me your name, right?" She was half-shouting to be heard by now, as he made his slow way down the street, the barrel of his cane trained on her all the while.

"Oh, you're right, I could totally have said nothing and thrown the suspicion onto that _other _one-eyed Orange Zircon who dresses just like me and steals shit for a living—come _on,_ Red! I tip one card, I've tipped my whole hand; I knew what I was doing."

She was staying put. Carbon and ash, she was actually _staying put._ There was hope for the youth of today, after all.

"I meant what I said, Little Red! If you're smart, you'll get outta dodge, too! Cops don't like people thinking they're above the law on either side of the line!" He was already out of range, but as long as _she _didn't know that, it was fine. A few more steps, and he'd be at the mouth of an alleyway that he knew led into a little maze of backstreets, the bones of the older city around which modern Vale had grown. Torchwick had walked those streets when they were new, and he knew them still. Red hadn't crossed his radar before now, so he doubted she could say the same.

And there it was. Torchwick lowered his cane and turned to run—

* * *

—and Ruby slammed into him at full speed, petals coalescing into her true shape as she made impact, knocking him sprawling to the pavement. Torchwick spat asphalt debris off his tongue and bucked her off, twisting sharply and throwing her a short distance. She rolled, careful to keep her elbows in, thankful she had dismissed her scythe before she'd lunged. Torchwick was already on his feet, holding his cane in front of him in what was unmistakably a well-practiced combat posture—one she didn't recognise.

Anxiety flared. Somewhere in the back of her head, she'd expected him to fight like Ozpin. Looked like she couldn't count on that small advantage after all.

_You beat Melanie,_ she reminded herself. _You beat Melanie._

_With Yang's help. When you weren't tired from fighting a bunch of other bad guys. And staying up late nearly every night for a week before and still trying to get through the days too…_

This was going to be rough.

"Fine," Torchwick said, setting his jaw. "Let's dance."

Ruby didn't waste breath replying, scrambling to gain some distance as she got back to her feet. She focused on the image of Qrow's weapon as she called back her own, scythe materialising in her hands and she swung out, the motion clumsy but she could hardly afford the time to do it right—he'd be inside her reach by then. Torchwick's cane flipped up to catch the blade, the Gem twirling lightly like a dancer to bring himself inward. Ruby yanked back hard, trying to hook him.

Torchwick loosed a sharp laugh, and to Ruby's shock, he jumped straight up; he landed directly on the incoming blade, feet planted firmly on the flat, yanking it from Ruby's grasp by his weight alone. He raised his cane again, the tip flipping open, and Ruby flung herself out of the way as he fired, a Burn Dust round detonating barely a foot away from her.

_Petals, _she berated herself belatedly; that ability wasn't entirely instinctual yet, and she wasn't thinking straight. _Or the shield-bubble. Head in the game, Ruby!_

Torchwick had already fired again, sending her running; at last she let go of her form, rose petals swirling around him as through her strange half-perception in this state she eyed the handle of her scythe. The blade was still firmly under Torchwick's feet; he moved nimbly atop it as he swivelled, somehow managing to track her movement even at this speed, the pupil of his one eye dilated and fixed intently on the whirlwind of her form.

She couldn't do this forever. Where could she go? …Could she flee? Would her weapon basically de-spawn and return to her Gem if she got far enough away?

Suddenly she noticed a sharp smirk on Torchwick's face, his thumb flicking over the handle of his cane, and then he fired straight at her. She sped up as best she could, unsure if a bullet or even a Dust round would harm her like this, but too late she realised the eruption of Dust around the barrel of his cane hadn't been the harsh red of Burn Dust, but an ominous black that somehow seemed to glow.

The Gravity Dust burst around her, and Ruby couldn't say for sure if it was affecting her solid, humanoid form or if her petals had been caught, but she was yanked rudely to earth, her body forcibly compacted into its proper shape. She yelled in pain, a strange tension building and breaking as her cells snapped together without warning, and she barely caught herself with her hands before her head could slam into the ground. She remembered abruptly how frightened she'd been the first time she'd broken apart, how relieved when she'd been able to will herself together again. Her control was gone, now, and it chilled her.

"Nice trick. You rely on it too much."

Ruby flipped over onto her back, and immediately felt the press of Torchwick's cane between her eyes. The outline of the barrel would be pressed into her skin if he lifted it away. His expression was almost blank as he stared down at her, and she realised that what he was about to do didn't affect him in the slightest. He would shoot her and walk away, completely indifferent.

"So long, Little Red. I'll do you a solid and kick your stone out of the street before I go."

"No, wait—!" _It doesn't work that way for me!_ Did it? Would she live? Was the Gemstone all she needed—was her body just another construct, 3D-printed flesh instead of projected light? Or was she even now taking her last breath?

Tears welled in her eyes, from fear at first—and then she imagined her dad learning she was gone forever, Qrow learning he'd lost another Rose Quartz, Yang blaming herself and going cold and silent, Ozpin bubbling her dead, empty Gemstone and adding her to his catalogue of the lost—

"Please don't," she whispered, raising her hands in a gesture of surrender. The motion drew Torchwick's eye, and he froze.

"What the _fuck,"_ he said, very clearly and precisely. Ruby couldn't move her head, but she tried to follow his gaze, her eyes palpably straining, and she saw what adrenaline and the greater pain of her forced reconstitution had prevented her from feeling: her palms were scraped raw, blood trickling to pool in the centre.

"But you're—you've got—your powers—the—" His mouth worked silently for a moment; his cane continued to press into Ruby's forehead, but she felt little tremors running down it. "Oh. Oh _hell _no. You're—"

Abruptly, he laughed, clapping his hand to his face, hiding it. "Of _course _you are. Oh, this night just keeps getting _better!_ Little _Lady Rose_, in the brand-new flesh!"

Torchwick dropped his hand, glaring down at her. "Do you have _any idea _how complicated this just got?" His cane pressed harder. Ruby gritted her teeth, determined not to let any more sounds escape. "Oh, and right on cue, I hear the cops. Great. _Perfect!_ Let's add a time limit! What to do with you…"

He startled then, wheeling around, the barrel at last leaving Ruby along with a shuddering sigh from deep within her. With effort, she levered herself up a little, enough to see past Torchwick to what had caught his attention.

"_Yang!" _she shouted, the Gem's head whipping around immediately from the wreckage of the Dust shop. Ruby knew the moment she'd been spotted: Yang's hair burst into flame, and she charged like a bull.

"Nope," Torchwick said, and darted down the alley he'd tried to use to escape earlier. Ruby struggled against the Gravity Dust still weighting her down, trying to give chase; she hissed in pain as her raw, bleeding hands met the pavement. She'd managed to fight her way onto one knee by the time Yang reached her, flames licking around her face.

"Ruby…"

She pointed. "That way! Go after him!"

Yang shook her head. "Ruby—"

"He's getting away!"

"_Ruby!"_ The name was nearly a shriek in Yang's voice.

Ruby stopped, staring up at her wide-eyed. The fire had gone. Yang knelt down, taking her hands, holding them palm-up; she smoothed her thumb over the imprint of Torchwick's weapon between Ruby's eyes. The Gem's hands were shaking—no. Her whole body was shaking.

"We're going home," Yang whispered, squeezing her eyes shut.

"But—!"

"We're going home. I am calling Tai and we are _going home."_

"But Torchwick—"

"_Almost killed you!"_ Yang's eyes flew open, and she grabbed Ruby by the shoulders, shaking her sharply. "I'm supposed to keep you safe and I couldn't and—and I put you in danger and it wasn't necessary and you could have _died!"_

"I _know,"_ Ruby protested. "But I didn't!"

"Yeah, that's the thing about _dying, _Ruby_—_it _never _happens until it does!" Yang swallowed hard. "Come on. Can you stand?"

"I'm covered in detonated Gravity Dust."

"Okay. Okay…let's get you cleaned off."

"The police…"

Yang's jaw tightened. "I don't _care."_

Which was a good thing, as it happened, because they arrived on scene less than a minute later.

* * *

And so Ruby found herself sitting in an interrogation room, the makeup washed from her face and neck, her hands bandaged, her scroll gone. A dark-haired woman who had introduced herself first as Marina and second as Detective Caliph had taken it and her statement maybe half an hour ago; she hadn't thought to check the clock until a little while after the detective had left. Yang had called Taiyang even as the patrol officers had approached them at the scene, explaining in an eerily calm voice that Ruby was safe and well but that they would be at the police station, raising her voice to ask the officers which precinct they'd been dispatched from.

She'd heard that calm crack right through along with Yang's voice as she'd added "Don't be mad at her, okay? …It's my fault."

When the door opened, it wasn't Detective Caliph or her father who entered. It was Ozpin, his expression grave. He closed the door behind him quite gently. Ruby dropped her gaze, listening more than watching as he approached the table, _step-tap-step_ with his cane. A rustling noise caught her attention, and a brown paper envelope with a little see-through window on the front was placed in front of her. It had a cookie in it, one of the nice big ones you got from coffee shops.

"Given the late hour," Ozpin said quietly, taking a seat, "I thought you might be hungry. It isn't much, but then neither is my influence these days."

Hesitantly, Ruby slid the envelope towards herself. Ozpin tipped his head in encouragement so she opened it, handling the cookie gingerly with her fingertips and nibbling at it. Once her stomach had been reminded that food was indeed A Thing, her appetite returned with a vengeance, and she swiftly devoured the treat.

Ozpin waited until she was done to speak again. "It's a good thing Yang thought to call your father first. She saved him a great deal of worry."

Ruby hunched her shoulders defensively.

"She insists—loudly—that she is solely responsible for your involvement in tonight's…incident. Unfortunately, that is not the story told by security footage." He paused. "You acquitted yourself well, considering your limited training and experience."

It should have been praise. Well, it _was_ praise. Somehow, though, Ruby got the impression that she wasn't supposed to preen in response. She simply waited in silence for the other shoe to drop.

"I believe I said much the same to Yang after her first few fights," Ozpin said at length, lacing his fingers together, resting his forearms against the edge of the table beside his cane. "Four thousand years ago, now. She would have been younger then than you are now. And why should she not have been proud, why should she not have put to use the skills we began to instil in her practically the day we took her in, your mother and Qrow and I? She was not a child. Gems are never children. Yet here you are. Human, Gem, child, all at once." He exhaled slowly, softly. "Do you know why Yang learned to cook?"

"…For me?" Ruby guessed, speaking for the first time since Ozpin had entered.

"Did you know she was the first of us to do so? She began practicing almost before you were born. As you grew older, she played with you, carried you about, held entire conversations with you even before you could speak, as if you could somehow understand and respond." His gaze grew distant, almost wistful. "She was the first of us to accept that Summer was well and truly gone, and that you would be someone and something entirely new—I do not count your father in that, of course. He knew from the start.

"Qrow and I were adrift with you, relieved that in those days you still returned to your father's care each night. In time, Yang coaxed Qrow to join in your play, aided your father in teaching him how you might be cared for. And she told me—" He chuckled. "She told me that if I was so in love with the sound of my own voice, I might as well read to you, and that if nothing else I'd bore you to sleep."

"I'm…sorry, but…what does this have to do with tonight?"

"It is only now that it strikes me as strange." Ozpin continued as if he hadn't heard her. "That the youngest of us should have been the most involved in raising you in those early years and further that, now that you are older, she has drawn back and allowed Qrow and I to take the lead. Because it is only now that I realise she _hasn't._ Now that you are beginning to grow into adulthood, you're coming into the abilities of a Gem. You can summon a Gem's weapon. And so, despite your additional needs, you are in Yang's eyes as much a Gem as she is—and she is raising you as we raised her, for how would she know to do otherwise? She can teach only what she herself has learned."

"You guys weren't her parents."

He smiled sadly. "And that, I fear, is where we failed her. …I am proud of what you've done, Ruby, because what I know of you tells me you did it out of a genuine desire to do the right thing. However, I cannot condone the way you went about it. You chose to confront Torchwick with no backup, and you chose to give chase when he would have left empty-handed and having harmed not a soul." Ozpin's face was stern again, his tone detached and critical.

"All this would have been bad enough were you a full-fledged Huntress or even a more advanced trainee. You are not. You have scant _months _of training, nothing more—and that is not nearly enough to face down an opponent as canny as Torchwick unless you are willing to rely more on luck than skill." His eyes closed just a little too long for a blink. "But I am no more your parent than I was Yang's, so it is time I leave and let your father have a word with you."

"Oh…"

Ozpin took his cane in hand and stood, looking down at her. "Do not misunderstand me. I am not at all happy with Yang's conduct in this, nor with yours. She neglected a responsibility she chose to accept and she endangered you. You wilfully misled myself, Qrow, and your father for nearly a week in order to abet what was, technically, criminal activity. You were both unconscionably reckless."

"Are we in real trouble?"

"With the law? No. Considering your age and that you acted in both self-defense and defense of another, you aren't being punished—the shopkeeper you aided is refusing to press charges as far as the damage to his property is concerned. For her part, Yang wasn't actually involved in what happened tonight and it is only _tonight,"_ Ozpin stressed, "that the two of you have been positively identified as persons of interest."

Well, that was a huge relief, but… "How mad is Dad?"

Ozpin smiled, but it was faintly apologetic. "Significantly more so than I am and marginally less so than Qrow. For better or worse, he's _quietly _angry this time."

"Worse," said Ruby, wincing. "Definitely worse."

"Do you need a moment to prepare yourself?"

"…No. I messed up. I've got this coming. Let's get it over with."

Ozpin nodded. Ruby thought he would leave right then, but to her surprise he leaned forward and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"You aren't the only one still learning, you know. Nor is Yang. But I think perhaps both of you still have some growing up to do."

Then he was gone, passing off the door to Taiyang and vanishing down the hallway behind him. Tai closed the door and looked at her for a long moment.

Tentatively, Ruby said, "Hi."

Taiyang inhaled deeply. "I'm glad you're okay," he said in a careful, controlled voice. "And I'm very disappointed that we have to have this talk again."

"Smart and careful," Ruby repeated quietly.

"Because I'm getting real tired of having to settle for knowing you didn't get yourself killed _this _time."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I _did _think about how you'd feel if…if something happened. I just didn't think of it soon enough."

Slowly, Taiyang nodded. "I know you're sorry. You were sorry last time, too. So this time, you're grounded. Ten days. And you'll be doing _everything _Qrow, Ozpin or I tell you to, and you'll remember that you're incredibly lucky that it's me choosing your punishment, not a judge or whatever cosmic force runs the afterlife around here."

_Just ten days?_ Ruby wanted to ask, but she kept the words from spilling out. No need to give him ideas. She swallowed. "Okay. I understand."

"Okay. Let's go home. We can talk more there."

"Home?"

"Yours. I'm not going to have you stay with me as a _punishment."_ Taiyang was no longer meeting her eyes. He passed a hand over his face, sighing. "You knowI love you, right?"

Standing, Ruby circled the table and wrapped her arms around his waist in a hug, careful to keep her abraded palms clear. "I'm sorry I've been making things harder for you lately."

"It's not about me." He returned the hug, the set of his shoulders finally relaxing. "Come on. This isn't the place for the rest of this conversation."

* * *

A little bit of shouting happened when they got home, but Qrow got it out of his system quickly. He always did, especially when Tai gave him a forbidding look that had him backing off early. Most of his anger seemed directed at Yang, but by the next day it had dropped to a simmer at most. It turned out that Yang was _also _subject to Taiyang's temporary new rules, grounding and all. To Ruby's surprise, Yang didn't object, just nodded and went to her room. Ruby followed her. She looked like she needed a hug, too. With everything out in the open, things were—well, not _normal, _but peaceful, no outbursts building and threatening to break free, no bombshells braced to fall. Ruby, relieved, began to feel like maybe normal really was around the corner, just waiting for the clock to run down on their punishment.

There was something a little sharp in the smile Qrow gave Ruby as he handed her the receiver to their communications landline, though. Like he knew that karma was about to hit her hard, which it did, in the form of Weiss Schnee's curt, haughty voice demanding answers.

* * *

_**A/N: If I'm being honest, the weirdest part of writing this fic is the whole thing where Ozpin=Garnet means he's like...an integral part of Ruby's immediate family now. Tai's still her dad, Qrow's still basically her uncle and Yang's still basically her big sister, but now also Ozpin is there and that's…a thing, I guess? Finding the right feel for their relationship has been a bit of a struggle—but fortunately, that struggle can exist as part of the story itself. Still. Oof.**_

_**Today's loosely-adapted episode was Tiger Millionaire. And also Yellow Trailer and also Ruby Rose and arguably also That Time Yang Took Ruby Into The Woods In A Wagon. Next chapter's loosely-adapted episode will be Giant Woman, for real this time, I promise. There will be a minimum and probably a total of one (1) Fusion. The thing you clicked the fic for is happening even if it's not necessarily the people you wanted it to happen with yet! Rejoice!**_

_**Feedback in any form is always welcome. Whether you leave anything or not, though, thanks for reading!**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: So **__**apparently this is just the lengt****h chapters are now. ...'kay.**_

_**As part of the fallout from the Torchwick Incident, Ruby and Yang are tasked with joining Qrow on his latest mission, a routine research trip that for some reason involves a stop-off at Haven. Now if only Yang and Qrow could put their current disagreement aside long enough to keep it routine, that would be great.**_

_**This was one of the first chapters I had anything written for, though several of the planned scenes have morphed somewhat and it initially involved a lot less…conflict.**_

_**william and jack an**__**d**__** jake:**__** Thank you! Hopefully you're continuing to enjoy the story!**_

_**Vaness**__**a**__** Masters: Yup, Gems have been a known part of Remnan society since they arrived; Summer's allies and any neutral Gems have spent millennia making themselves at home. It's a bigger deal here mainly because there's just so many more Gems on Remnant than there were on Earth.**_

_**So with that...**__**  
**_

_***clangs bell* Fusions! Fusions are here! We have Fusions now! Not really a spoiler because I already said this was Giant Woman! Read on and enjoy!**_

* * *

**Like Nobody's Watching**

Ruby's skin prickled and itched as she rematerialized on the warp pad. She opened her eyes—closing them wasn't a requirement, but she always did it instinctively—and looked around.

She'd been here a lot over the last few years, but the vast courtyard in which she now stood never grew any less impressive. The complex was as pristine and intact as it had been nearly six thousand years ago, when the central structures were first constructed to serve as the fortress-capitol of the Rose Rebellion. Enough buildings had been added since then that the full campus was nearly the size of a small town, but most of it wasn't visible from the warp. That was set on the huge, arch-lined central walkway; behind her were the airship landings and the steep drop down into the fjord, and before her in the distance were the high doors of the main hall, the structure dwarfing the great statue in its pool which stood at the heart of the innermost node.

Behind that she could see an array of domes and spires clustered together. It was like they were hanging back out of respect for the massive structure of Beacon Tower, buttressed by four lesser turrets themselves tall enough to see and crowned by the lantern chamber which gave the complex its name. The beacon was dark, the hands of the clock beneath it stopped. This place which had once garrisoned an entire army, which in centuries past had housed and trained generations of organics seeking to defend their world, stood eerily empty, and as always happened Ruby's awe was soon overshadowed by a strange, heavy sadness that seemed to come from the very stones around her.

This was Beacon Academy as she had always known it: solemn, grand, and terribly lonely.

"Alright, come on," Qrow said, stepping off the warp. "We're burning daylight."

"We've got plenty to burn," Yang pointed out, but she followed his brisk pace without protest.

"Yeah, well, Mistral's a few time zones east and we've got a long walk once we're there." He glanced back at her, a grin slowly spreading over his face. "Hang on. You've _really _never been where we're going before. Oh, this is going to be all kinds of educational for both of you."

"Yay," Yang deadpanned. "Education."

"Yay," echoed Ruby.

"Hey, you guys don't wanna get stuck doin' milk runs with me, maybe don't run around paying crime unto crime." Qrow shrugged. "You've been getting off easy up to now."

"You made us weed the _entire vegetable patch."_

"And Dad's," Ruby added glumly.

"Mowing the lawn, weed-whacking around the driveway—not to mention all those freaking survey missions _I _had to go on—"

"Oh, you mean the ones I _can't_ go on because you can't be trusted to actually patrol?" Qrow raised an eyebrow at Yang, who quieted, scuffing her boots a little as she walked.

Chastened, Ruby proceeded in silence as well. Her gaze passed over the trees whose deep red foliage marked them as transplants from Forever Fall, but lingered on the statue as they passed it. Armed stone Gems, humans, and Faunus clustered together protectively around a central figure she recognised only from pictures: Summer Rose Quartz in full battle garb, her cloak swirled around her by an absent wind, caught in time. Her hands were raised above her head, palms up.

"It isn't hooked up anymore," Yang told her quietly. "But it's a fountain. Draws water from the streams around campus and feeds them back out the basin to the falls. The water comes out in a dome, like she's casting a shield."

Ruby looked up reflexively at the dulled blue of the sky, its muted colour and the occasional ripples of iridescence that crossed her view betraying the presence of the much larger shield which covered the campus, its diameter stretching from the airship landings in the west to the outer boundaries of the dishevelled gardens in the east. That shield, however, was maintained by a vast circle of pylons linked up to the Tower, the product of cross-bred tech and not innate Gem abilities. It was also the reason why the warp was the only way in or out of Beacon.

One of the tall doors swung open easily at Qrow's touch; he led them into the dimly-lit hall, the only source of light the skylights overhead. They never crossed the floor directly, for some reason, skirting around the edge of the chamber towards a descending staircase, as if avoiding the patches of light cast by the dimmed sun. They wound down into the basement, Qrow passing his hand over a sigil on the wall to illuminate the room. Ruby had been here before, too, and she knew where they were headed: a control panel set in a little alcove at the far end. She was surprised, though, when Qrow beckoned her closer.

"C'mere. I wanna show you how to work this."

"Okay!" Eagerly, Ruby bent in as Qrow began pointing out the holographic switches and buttons.

"We bastardised this out of the door controls on an old wreck we scavenged back in the day. Here's the code that unlocks the controls…right, now that button there used to be 'open', and that one was 'close'. 'Open' lets the warp take input and give output to locations other than Patch. 'Close', well, it's Patch or nothing."

"That's what it's on now?"

"Mmhm."

"Do all the warps have controls like this? I've never seen anything like this at the house."

"Nope. The Beacon warp was built special by Rebel technicians so we could, eh," he tilted his head, "pull up the drawbridge, so to speak. A few of us cobbled together the one on Patch after the war, made it special so it only worked to and from here. Paranoid, sure, but we were done taking chances by then." He powered down the display.

"Thought we needed to get a move on?" Yang prompted, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, yeah, don't get your hair in a knot." Qrow waved her off, heading back towards the stairs with Ruby and Yang trailing after him as before.

* * *

Ruby had closed her eyes on the distant city of Vale. She opened them now on a broad, multi-storied building with exposed beams and a curved roof; in the distance she could see a low wooden tower that looked something like the Animan pagodas she'd seen in books and movies. Which, _duh_, she realised a moment later, wasn't a coincidence. Neatly-tended Eastern gardens, sparse and precise, lined the square courtyard in which they now stood, tall ginkgos providing patchy shade, the trailing fronds of gnarled willows stirring in the gentle wind. And there _was _wind; no forcefield stood between them and the pale blue sky.

The air felt thinner here, and slightly chilly. Ruby wished she'd left her hoodie on, even if it looked a little weird to wear it layered with her cloak. At least she had it rolled up in the bottom of the little backpack she wore under the cloak—she could always put it on if they wound up somewhere even colder.

"Welcome to Haven," Qrow announced, looking around to get his bearings. "Stay close. Don't wander."

"Is it dangerous or something?" Ruby asked, following him.

"Nope," Qrow said.

"Some of the buildings are medical wards," Yang explained. "There's a few that're actually still for training, too, and the tower has what's left of the Hunting administration. Haven's not what Beacon was, but it can do the same job if it has to."

"Haven used to specialise in medical treatment back in the golden age of Hunting," Qrow added. "Once this place fell outta use along with Beacon and the other bases, people pretty much forgot about it until the Liberation Wars ended. The Atlas base stepped up when Beacon officially closed down a few centuries back, but they made ends meet by conscripting all their new Huntsmen into the military and making Huntsman training mandatory for a certain percentage of each branch. After Liberation, well." A bitter little laugh. "Let's just say the Faunus weren't too thrilled about leaving things like that. Weren't many Gems or humans happy with that idea either."

"So we busted out the battle gear and went up there to tell 'em they were moving house," Yang said with a grin, punching into the palm of her opposite hand.

"Close enough. The two of us stood there looking pissed-off while Summer and Oz made pointed diplomacy noises about how it would really be better if Vacuo or even Mistral had a base instead. 'Course, Vacuo was basically broke by then, so Mistral won."

Ruby stifled a laugh. "I can _see _you guys doing that." She could: the pleasant, faintly apologetic smile Ozpin would be wearing as he never_ quite_ threatened the Atlesian government, Qrow somehow managing to loom behind him despite his smaller stature, his heavy glower and Yang's fierce flame-edged glare bracketing the two more conciliatory Gems. Her imagination wasn't quite up to the task of envisioning Summer's role in the proceedings. She remained an indistinct rosy shape amongst the others, nominally the central figure but inevitably out of focus.

"If I could've had a camera on me without breaking character, I would have filmed the whole thing and taken home Best Picture." Yang held the door for Ruby to step into the hall, falling into step behind her and letting it swing shut on its own.

"You know, except for the part where there wasn't a Motion Picture Academy back then because organics hadn't invented movies yet."

In the face of Qrow's scepticism, Yang simply shrugged. "Eh. They got there eventually."

The lights were on, here, and Ruby could hear the distant sounds of activity—not many people, nor were they loud. It was almost more like a sense of purpose and hominess than an actual sound, and it made a vivid contrast to the stark emptiness of Beacon. Qrow led them up one side of the double staircase.

"You called ahead, right?" Yang asked him. He waved her off impatiently.

"I'm rude, not stupid. I gave Leo a heads-up last week and confirmed yesterday. We're expected."

"So I guess this is the part where I ask where we're going? Again?" Ruby prompted.

"Leo's office."

"…And…after that?"

"You'll see," Qrow said, not for the first time.

They never made it to their destination; the halls were sparsely populated, but one of the passers-by was an older man with a mane of greying hair, a scholar's coat shrouding his broad frame, and his eyes lit up as he saw them.

"Qrow! My gods, how long has it been?"

"Leo." Qrow's smile was thin but genuine, and he reached past the man's hand to grip his forearm instead, the gesture easily returned. Old forms, Ruby recognised, one warrior greeting another, a distant precursor to the modern handshake. This was a Huntsman, then. "Too damn long. How've you been?"

"Oh, much as I said when we spoke earlier. Even for us mortals, not much changes in a day." He smiled ruefully and released Qrow, who stepped aside and gestured to Yang and Ruby.

"I don't think you've met Yang…"

"Yeah, you weren't born the last time I was here," Yang said breezily. "'Sup."

"Leonardo Lionheart," he introduced himself, clasping her forearm. "Ametrine, correct? I've heard rather a lot about you. You're quite the Huntress."

Ruby could almost seethe calculus playing out in Yang's mind, deciding whether this praise rated pleasure or suspicion. She seemed to land somewhere right in the middle, replying with a sunny smile and a slightly guarded "Well, I've had a lot of practice."

"And this is Ruby. Rose Quartz," Qrow added after a pause.

Lionheart's gaze immediately snapped to Ruby, taking in her red hair, the cloak over her shoulders, and the Gemstone in her sternum. Ruby set her shoulders and lifted her chin.

"Yes. Yes, of course." Lionheart blinked rapidly. "Taiyang's daughter, yes? How is he doing these days?"

Something loosened in Ruby's chest, and she smiled, relaxing. "He's pretty good. I didn't know you knew each other."

"Ah." He shook his head, a wry gesture. "All the organic Huntsmen get to know each other at some point. We worked a few jobs together before he settled down for good. Not that I get out much myself these days. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Rose Quartz."

"You too…!" She held out a hand, wincing internally; what the heck was she supposed to call him, anyway? 'Mister' was usually safe, but what if that was like refusing to call someone by their military rank? So would it be just 'Huntsman'?

Lionheart was having an awkward moment of his own, though, and didn't seem to notice her slip. He hesitated briefly, fingers twitching as if he might go for her wrist instead, before enfolding her hand in his own and giving it a firm shake. He turned briskly to Qrow.

"Well, best we get you what you need so you can be on your way before it gets any later. Follow me, please."

Lionheart led them back along the route they'd taken to reach him, all the way back to the entrance. He turned to face that first curving double staircase—more specifically, the statue at the apex of their arc. If the woman here immortalised in stone had been real in some age gone by, Ruby could not identify her. Lionheart placed his hands flat on the dish the statue held aloft. It shimmered, a soft hum filling the air; then its eyes flashed, blazing a brilliant blue.

Lionheart stepped back and Ruby with him, having come a little too close to observe. The statue rotated in place, taking a large patch of floor with it as it vanished seamlessly into the wall. The surface which replaced it and the wall behind it was brushed metal, jarring in contrast to the gleaming wood of the rest of the floor.

Ruby let out a high-pitched sound. "You have a _secret passageway?"_

A flash of amusement crossed Lionheart's lined face, a crinkling of his eyes and a twitch of lips and nose that reminded her of a cat twitching its whiskers. "A secret _lift, _actually." He gestured her forward. "After you. Mind the edge."

They filled the lift without much jostling, though a fifth person—even one Ruby's size—would not have fit. Lionheart laid his hand on an outlined patch of the metal wall, which hummed and shimmered just as the dish had. The lift shuddered and began to descend.

For a time, there was darkness, and Ruby wobbled, disoriented by her blindness. Fear flickered as she remembered the sheer drop-off that awaited past the edge of the lift, and her fumbling grasp caught hold of Qrow's shirt. He put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. Then a soft, unearthly glow slowly seeped in.

The lift came to rest on the floor of a long, narrow chamber, lit by indirect light much like that in the basement at Beacon. It was gold-tinted, yet somehow still cold. Maybe that was the brushed metal of the floor and walls. Irregular boxy shapes lined the edge of the floor; they might have been machines with hidden displays and interfaces, or just ornamentation made to appeal to a literally alien aesthetic sense. The high ceiling was vaulted stonework fine as any cathedral; perhaps the roof of the cavern itself had been carved, whether it was natural or manmade. …Or Gem-made, Ruby supposed. It didn't look much like Beacon or the sea-spire she'd visited and promptly destroyed on her first mission.

"What is this place?" she asked, looking up at Qrow.

"Geomonitoring station, from before the war," he said—there was only one war a Gem would refer to in that tone of voice. "Not that we use it for that anymore; organic science has come far enough to make it pretty pointless to keep this equipment up and running. On the plus side, since no one has to be down here working, it makes a nice, secure vault."

"Indeed." Lionheart dipped his head in agreement as he stepped off the lift, leading the way deeper in. "Traditionally, Haven's director is the only individual with access—well, aside from—"

He cut himself off, glancing at Ruby anxiously.

"Summer," Qrow finished for him.

"Gotcha." Ruby shoved down the old hurt and filed away _director _for future reference. 'Director Lionheart'? That sounded properly important.

"Hey, check this out!" Yang called, waving Ruby over to a softly-humming pedestal topped by a transparent sphere. It was about the size of a beach-ball, roughly two-thirds full of clear liquid.

"What _is _that?" Ruby asked, bending down and staring through it, watching the meniscus wavering gently; the pedestal seemed to be keeping the liquid from standing stagnant.

"It's—uh, actually, now that I'm about to say it out loud it's kind of weird and gross."

"It's a reservoir of healing tears," Lionheart said, approaching them, his hands clasped behind him. "Our only one. Among our other functions, Haven is a sanctuary and treatment facility for damaged Gems. These are for use in severe cases."

Ruby wrinkled her nose. "…Are you telling me my mom used to come here and cry into this ball?"

Yang shrugged broadly, grimacing.

"Well." Lionheart cleared his throat. "It's been a valuable resource for us. Doubly so now that our supply is…limited."

Ruby didn't meet his eyes, newly uncomfortable at the reminder. A flash of movement caught her averted gaze, and she spotted a tuft of dark brown fur flicking against Lionheart's ankle. He had a _tail, _she realised, lashing in a restrained arc around his legs as if in distress or discomfort. It stilled abruptly, as if noticing her attention, and Lionheart cleared his throat again and turned away, a touch of colour on his cheeks.

"Right. We should—"

"Got it," Qrow announced, brandishing a small, sleek cartridge traced with glowing lines of circuitry at them as he passed, quick-walking back towards the lift.

"—yes, of course." Lionheart visibly shook himself, another feline mannerism Ruby could now explain, and delivered a rather stiff smile. "Shall we?"

Ruby couldn't help looking over her shoulder at the orb of tears as she left, unsure of her own feelings.

Once they returned to the high, pillared entrance hall, Lionheart stepped back from their group, again folding his hands behind him. "Will you be returning the key this evening, or do you mean to hold onto it?"

"Tonight, hopefully," Qrow replied. "If something comes up, we'll stash it at Beacon until we can get it back to you."

"Very good. Well, in the event you don't return today, give my regards to Ozpin. And to Tai," Lionheart added, glancing down at Ruby.

"I'll tell him you said hello!"

"Take care, Leo," Qrow said, tipping his head in a careless sort of nod.

"Be safe," the old Huntsman counselled. He watched them depart, only heading for the stairs as Ruby slipped outside after Yang and let the door fall shut.

"So it's a key. A key to what?" Yang wanted to know.

"Relax. We're almost there. Just one warp to go."

"Where?" Ruby asked.

"South. _Far _south. Nearest town is Mokusei, but that's not where we're going. You packed your water, right Ruby? It gets pretty hot down there."

"Yup," Ruby confirmed, readjusting her backpack without really thinking about it. "And fruit snacks."

"Dibs on the grape," Yang said immediately, causing Ruby to make a face.

"_Ew._ That's the worst one!"

"Not if you can shapeshift your taste buds."

"Alright, no micro-level shapeshifting on-mission. Save your energy."

Yang gave Qrow an incredulous look. "Wow, okay, didn't realise I was triggering your acute _fun allergy._ Sorry."

Qrow sighed. "Look, I'm supposed to be hammering home the whole 'responsibility' thing, okay? It doesn't come natural but I'm trying here. This is community service, not a field trip. Gimme a break."

"I thought it was supposed to be educational," Ruby protested innocently. "Doesn't that make it a field trip?"

She giggled as Qrow swatted the back of her head.

"Smartass."

* * *

"Hey, I think we're here," Yang declared, stepping out into the clearing. "At least I assume we were looking for the _massive shipwreck_ and not more rainforest?"

"Good guess," Qrow drawled, reaching back to help Ruby clamber over a tangle of roots and dead growth; her combat boots weren't doing too shabby of a job gripping terrain, and certainly they made it harder to roll her ankles than the hiking shoes had. She dodged a mechanical stake driven into the ground, one of several set around the edge of the clearing, and finally looked up.

"Whoa…"

She didn't know if it was big in the grand scheme of spaceships, because she'd never seen one before, but that was definitely what this was and it was indeed to her eyes _massive._ Part of the hull was ripped open, a metal ribcage overgrown with vines, but it was mostly intact, less a few missing plates and panels, some of which Ruby thought she could see peeking out of the earth around the ship. Absently, Ruby lowered her hood and ran her fingers through her hair, grimacing at the feel of sweat gathered on her scalp; it was exactly as muggy as you'd expect a rainforest in South Anima to be, and her hood hadn't helped matters, but it had kept the bugs off for the last few hours while they hiked.

"It doesn't look _too _busted up," Yang said, voicing Ruby's thoughts. "Five thousand plus years wasn't enough time to patch that hole?"

"That's not the only hole. Just the only one you can see from this angle. Most of the inner portions of the ship are still sealed and secure, but one of the engines imploded in orbit; that's how she crashed."

"What, like there was some kind of malfunction?"

Qrow smirked. "Some kind."

"Space war,"Yang breathed, exchanging a look with Ruby. _"Nice."_

"So what kind of ship was she?" Ruby asked eagerly as they approached the ship; they descended a shallow slope to get there, the ship lying in a still-healing furrow of its own making, long overgrown with greenery. "Like a super cool battleship, or a colony ship—ooh, was she a generation ship!?"

Qrow wrinkled his nose. "What would Homeworld do with a generation ship? Nah, she's a science vessel, sent to investigate and document any new phenomena observed on the colony." He said something in a rolling language Ruby didn't recognise, punctuated by harsh fricatives. "Roughly means, uh, _information _or _intelligence to illuminate the hidden, _or _dark, _or maybe _unknown._ Kind of on the nose, pretty clunky too, so we went with a looser translation."

The Pearl pulled aside a curtain of vines to reveal a path into the ship's skeleton, gesturing for Ruby and Yang to precede him. "Welcome aboard the _Lamp of Knowledge."_

"Ooh, fancy." Yang bobbed a mock-curtsey to Qrow before she stepped over a protruding bar and entered the ship. Qrow sneered after her, rolling his eyes.

"_I _thought it was cool," Ruby assured him, patting his arm.

Qrow put a hand on her upper back, guiding her in. "I know you did. That's why you're my favourite."

"I heard that!" Yang's voice echoed strangely in the semi-enclosed space, only a few surfaces actually reflecting her voice.

Ruby picked her way carefully over the uneven floor, or maybe wall, or ceiling for that matter. Plant life was abundant in and around the patches of sunlight admitted by the ship's battered frame, increasing the difficulty of movement. Even Yang was watching where she put her feet. Qrow, however, seemed to know exactly where to step, traversing the rough terrain with an easy grace.

She broke the silence at last when she finally caught up with him, scrambling slightly to make up for the discrepancy in their strides. "So why crash a science ship?"

"Knowledge is power." When Ruby glanced up, Qrow was still staring directly ahead, intent on his path; his eyes were hard. "Any information or specimens gathered on alien worlds have only one purpose: to give Homeworld an advantage. Whether it's new materials or technology to assimilate or a weakness to exploit. It's a scientist's job to gather data and mould it into actionable intelligence."

"So their scientists fight, too?"

Something passed over Qrow's face too quickly for Ruby to identify. "Homeworld doesn't have civilians."

They had reached what was unmistakably a door despite its impressive size and the alien technology of which it was crafted; it was edged by a dull red light, and set cockeyed in the wall, which made the angled surface beneath it most definitely a floor.

Yang eyed it dubiously, one eyebrow hiked up high. "That's not ominous."

"It's just locked." Qrow pulled out the little device from Haven, what Lionheart had called a key, and held it out. A tiny circular pane set in the door lit up the same colour as the key's circuitry. The key trembled, then slowly rose a few inches into the air; Qrow lowered his hand and stood back.

The key remained hovering in midair, rotating gently until a beam shot out from the door, connecting with it squarely. It shuddered, glowing brighter, and then with little ceremony the lights around the door flipped from red to a soft blue, the beam cutting out and the key dropping. Qrow caught it easily, tucking it away again as the door _clicked _and pulled open along an angular seam across its middle, the top half drawing up and the bottom sinking into the floor.

"Well." Ruby took a deep breath. "In we go."

"Go where, exactly?" Yang asked. "What do we need with an interstellar science lab?"

"The archives. Watch out for any scanners set into walls or doors. The security systems aren't exactly, uh, _reliable _anymore."

They'd gotten a few paces in by the time it clicked, and Yang groaned. "This is still about that stupid drone thing in Forever Fall!"

Qrow tilted his head with a little shrug. "If all goes well, this'll be the end of it. We let the _Lamp _get an eyeful, she tells us what we're all looking at, and we can take home an answer."

"Why didn't we do that in the first place?" Yang demanded. "Why don't we _always _do that?"

"Because the archives can't run on power cells like the doors can and spinning up the _Lamp'_s prime reactor just to ask 'Hey, what's this?' is playing with something a hell of a lot scarier than fire." Qrow began ticking points off on his fingers. "She wasn't made to run in atmosphere, so we don't have much of a window of safety before we have to drop the reactor right back into a cooling cycle. Some of the coolant tanks were damaged in the crash, so that cycle doesn't work so great anymore, meaning it gets kind of toasty in here if we cut it too close. Worst of all, the _reactor _isn't in top shape anymore either, and now it vents a lot more than just _thermal _radiation when we cycle it down, and some of those wavelengths'll do interesting things to your Gem. So if we don't get out fast and pop the rad shield—those posts outside, that's what they're for—we're all screwed."

He waggled those three fingers in a rippling motion at Yang, whose eyes had widened and jaw slackened in alarm.

"New question," Ruby said, voice sliding a little higher than usual. "Why do we _ever _do this?"

Qrow chuckled dryly. "Because think how stupid we'd feel if we didn't and everything went to hell."

Yang was incredulous. "How does a spaceship reactor going critical _not _count as everything going to hell!?"

"Hey, hey. No one said anything about the reactor going." Qrow held up his hands. "Relax, will ya? I know this song and dance. As long as we don't do anything stupid, we'll be fine."

"That's still a huge risk! What if something happens to—us?" Her eyes darted to Ruby briefly. "Are you seriously so worried about some hunk of busted metal that it's worth putting all our _lives_ on the line!?"

"I don't know!" Qrow burst out, throwing his hands up. "I don't know, okay? And that line about how what you don't know can't hurt you? It's _bullshit._ I don't know if I should be worried, I don't even know what I should be worried _about, _and we don't have Summer around to make these kinds of calls anymore so it's up to the three of us—or I _thought _it was, but _apparently _it's just me and Ozpin because _someone _can't be _bothered_ to do the _one! thing! we asked her to do!"_

Ruby flinched back, shocked.

"'Can't be _bothered'?"_ Yang echoed, clenching her fists. She flung out an arm. "Oh, I'm sorry I can't be _bothered _to live my life waiting for the other cosmic shoe to drop! I'm sorry I can't wrap my head around this stupid idea you two are clutching onto _as hard as you can_ that anything you can't _immediately _explain away is a sign of the _end times! _I'm _sorry _you—"

"Do not—no, do _not _stand there and give _me_ shit for bein' careful when I just—"

"Guys, maybe we should—"

"—and it's _completely—_oh, oh _careful?_ Careful, that's what we're being right now, okay, sorry—"

Ruby tried again. "I just don't think it's really the time…!"

"—_I couldn't tell _with that freaking _laundry list _of ways _Ruby could die here!"_

"Oh _now _that's a concern for you!"

Silence slammed down. Yang's eyes went wide with hurt before her features hardened again, and she stepped back, turning away. Qrow's glare faltered, uncertainty creeping over his face. His eyes darted as if scanning words on a page before him, lips moving in unvoiced syllables, sounds aborted before they could leave his throat.

"Yang," he managed at last, voice rough. "I—I didn't mean—"

"Come on," Yang bit out, marching down the hall. "We're burning daylight."

Qrow turned pleading eyes on Ruby, who bit her lip, her hands still clasped to her chest defensively.

She was pretty sure she'd seen tears in Yang's eyes when she'd turned.

* * *

Needless to say, the rest of the trip was significantly quieter. It was in silence Qrow keyed in the sequence that powered up the reactor core and set the whole ship softly humming, lights flickering to life overhead, and it was in silence that he led them to an oversized lift that slowly hoisted them upwards, letting out onto an identical passageway.

"So!" Ruby said finally, swinging her arms casually. "How does this part work?"

"In here," was Qrow's subdued reply, leading them through a door on the left-hand side.

It was a large hexagonal room, walls, floor, and ceiling all lined with softly-glowing irregularly-spaced circles of different sizes, some connected by glowing lines, others isolated. Strings of metallic shapes stretched from ceiling to floor, reminding Ruby of beaded curtains save that they were attached at both ends and thrumming with strange energy. They nearly bisected the room across the central corners, a gap broad enough for two, maybe three average-sized humans to walk abreast creating an aisle down the centre. Towards the end of that aisle was a pedestal topped by a blue-glowing, rounded shape almost like an onion, unmistakably mechanical but strangely delicate, smooth curves in a room full of sharp lines.

"You two stay behind the sensor arrays, okay?" Qrow gestured at the weird bead-curtain things. "There's an identity scanner built in. It's malfunctioning, so right now it only checks to see what type of Gem you are, and it might feel threatened by a Quartz. And neither of you are exactly standard-issue."

"What if we covered our Gemstones?"

Qrow snorted. "Not a chance. You _might _confuse the system if you crawled in under a lead box. Cloth ain't gonna cut it."

"Oh," Yang breathed. "So that's why—"

She cut herself off, shuffling her feet and glancing sullenly at Qrow.

"Yeah," he said, and she nodded shortly, staring fixedly at the ground.

"Why what?" Ruby ventured, even as the oppressive atmosphere weighed on her.

"Why it's usually me who comes here. You have to either be way up the hierarchy or have the right specialty to access the archives. Quartzes and Garnets are soldiers, grunts or field specialists unless they're specifically promoted—basically, one of you or Ozpin would have to be the _Lamp_'scaptain of record, otherwise no dice." He shrugged. "And you can't trick the scanner through Fusion, either; it detects the component Gems as separate entities, even if you hide all but one, and unless you read out as an approved intra-caste 'mega'-type Fusion, you know, two or more Gems of the same type Fused together, it'll sic the security system on you. Which kind of defeats the purpose. Uh, why—w-why are you holding your hand up like that?"

Ruby continued to stand there as if frozen, silent and with her hand still raised, before finally managing to blurt out, _"I have questions."_

"Oh crap, we never told you about Fusion!" Yang realised, and Ruby's raised hand whipped down to jab a finger towards her.

"_Yes, _that, that thing, _what?"_

"So, it's like, if you turn on one light the part of the room near it gets bright, right? And if you turn on a second light all the way across the room from that light—it's a really big room—then you get another bright spot over there. But if you turn on a second light right next to the first light instead, it gets brighter because there's _more _light in one place." Yang gestured at herself and then at Qrow. "We're lights in opposite corners of that huge room. Well, actually, we're the light the lightbulbs give off. I guess our Gemstones are the lightbulbs."

Qrow buried as much of his face as he could in one hand, muttering under his breath.

"Thing is, no matter how close we get to each other, we're always still separate bright spots. So Fusing is how you get the lightbulbs—our Gemstones—close enough together to make one big patch of light—one big Gem—instead of two smaller ones. Like screwing us into the same light fixture!"

Ruby tried to process that. "So you can…sort of…break down like you're going to shapeshift, but then re-form _together…_to make yourselves into something bigger?"

"It goes a little deeper than that," Qrow protested.

"Yeah, you got it!" Yang declared, beaming.

"No, look, it's—it's really _personal, _you know, it's not like sticking two chunks of clay together! Sure, you got the whole 'two Gems make one bigger Gem' thing but it's not about being bigger or stronger. That's a side-effect. A really useful one sometimes, but the big thing about Fusion is that it makes something new."

"So who's in charge of the big Gem?" Ruby wanted to know.

"The big Gem is."

Clearly Ruby looked as confused as she felt, because Qrow made a noise of frustration. "See, this is what I meant. Look, Fusion isn't just two Gems stuck together."

"Never said it was," Yang muttered.

"It's more like…a mixture. You know, you can have a little glass of gin and a smaller thing of vermouth, and that's great and all, but you put those into one glass together and now you don't have either of those things. You've got a martini. You following?"

"She's thirteen," Yang pointed out. "Why _would_ she follow that? At least my example used light, you know, something we're actually _made of."_

Qrow scowled. "What, underage drinking was your hard-and-fast line when you were dragging her around town all night?"

"She didn't drag me anywhere," Ruby said in a small voice. Qrow ignored her.

"Well, as long as we're talking about leaving things out," Yang said flatly, "you should also know Fusion only works with someone you're close to. Like a good friend. Or _family."_

She all but spat the last word, stalking off toward the right-hand set of sensors. She stood half-turned away from them, arms folded tightly.

"…Yeah. Family." Ruby couldn't decipher Qrow's expression. "Better go on. The sooner we get this done, the better."

She joined Yang, peering gingerly through the gaps between each slender wire column. Qrow walked straight down the centre, stopping in his tracks as the sensor arrays blazed to light.

An androgynous voice spoke in the same language Qrow had used earlier to identify the ship. Yang frowned, uncrossing her arms and leaning forward, cocking her head slightly.

"_Gem,"_ she whispered. "Now it just said _Pearl_…and I think that's _alone?"_

The voice took on an impatient tone, as if it were demanding something, and Qrow quickly replied. Yang perked up at what he said.

"Oh! That was a Gem ID code, _facet _and then a bunch of numbers and letters. Apparently Homeworld Gems _never _have names," she explained for Ruby's benefit. "It's not allowed."

Ruby found that idea strangely unsettling. "I knew they _didn't, _but I didn't know they _couldn't._ Why?"

"Because they're a bunch of totalitarian creeps? I don't know, I've never even _met _a Homeworld Gem, why're you asking me?"

Qrow's voice was getting louder as he responded to the system's queries, exasperation obvious in any language.

"_Are you serious?"_ he demanded, before snapping something in the Gem language.

"He just repeated whatever that was," Ruby hissed.

"Yeah, I couldn't make out any words I knew."

Qrow said something else, and then Ruby heard a loud "Finally,_ thank you,"_ from him as the object on the pedestal glowed brighter. "There's gotta be some way of tricking this damn thing into thinking I've got my _own _clearance…"

"_Analysis complete. Predictive analysis applied to previous linguistic input indicates this generated vocabulary is compatible with the provided language. Please confirm, User Pearl."_

"Oh for—_Yes, _I confirm, just let me talk to—"

A hologram coalesced above the pedestal. It was—or appeared to be—a woman, her entire body glowing the same turquoise-blue as the lights throughout the chamber, a colour almost like Hard Light Dust, Ruby realised. Despite that, she didn't appear to _be _a hard light construct herself, at least not the way a Gem was; her body was luminescent and ethereal compared to Qrow, whose shimmering grey complexion was tinted blue from all directions just like Ruby's own skin.

"Jinn," Qrow said, straightening his posture. The holographic woman smiled lazily.

"User _Pearl,"_ she purred. "Back again so soon. One of these days you will have to tell me _your _designation to make things even."

"One of these days," Qrow agreed, smirking.

Jinn sighed. "So you always say. And we were getting along so _well _last time. I thought we had a real…connection."

Qrow chuckled nervously at that, shooting a furtive look towards Ruby and Yang. "Y-yeah, we. We sure did, heh…"

"…Do we wanna know what they're talking about?" Ruby asked lowly. To her surprise, Yang didn't immediately jump on board to speculate, offering up only a noncommittal grunt. She was watching Jinn quite intently, a slight frown creasing her forehead.

"Aw, are you _shy _now?" Jinn smirked. "Adorable."

"Let's get to business, shall we?" Qrow suggested hastily.

She pouted. "Tease."

Yang drew in breath sharply, prompting Ruby to slap a hand over her mouth.

"Shh!"

Yang made a muffled sound, pawing at Ruby's hand. She dropped it, and Yang cupped her hands to whisper "AI! That's an AI,it's gotta be!"

"What?"

"Recall, recognition, nuance, detecting emotion, _expressing _emotion—or faking it convincingly—going off on a tangent without being prompted, the natural speech patterns! She's too sophisticated for a bot. She's not a Gem, either, so she's got to be an artificial intelligence! No wonder the archives are linked to the primary reactor—you can't run an entire AI on battery power!"

"You got all that from Qrow having weird flirting time with the computer lady?"

"What?" Yang said defensively. "I read."

"Computer science or science _fiction?"_

"I don't like what copping to either of those things would say about me."

"You remember these?" Qrow was asking Jinn, holding up a…

Ruby squinted, confused. "What the heck is that?"

"Three'n'a-half inch floppy disk." Yang grinned. "That's what video games used to come on!"

"Unfortunately," Jinn sighed, holding out one large, shapely hand. "Your master needs better taste in storage technology, little Pearl."

Qrow's face twisted briefly in irritation, but he swiftly smoothed it out and shrugged. "It's tried and tested. We knew you'd be able to read it." He extended the floppy towards her, and Jinn delicately rested a fingertip upon it, closing her eyes.

"Mm. Interesting," she murmured. "I do not recognise this design. I am now adding it to the archives."

"You don't…okay." Qrow frowned. "Do you recognise any individual _parts _of it?"

"I can identify the _function _of certain pieces, but I would only be confirming the conclusions of the technician who compiled this report in the first place. The technology and its specifications are unfamiliar to me. Considering its condition, I am unable even to determine if it is superior or inferior to that of the Authority. I note a strong similarity in design sensibility to Homeworld devices with similar functions, but I have no record of this specific device or the pieces used in its construction."

Qrow withdrew the disk, looking grave. He then produced a pair of small specimen jars, opening them and holding them out on his palm.

"The material of which the device was constructed?" Jinn asked, reaching out again.

"Samples from the casing and the chassis," Qrow confirmed, pointing to the containers in turn. "The internal components were too damaged."

"So I noticed. May I ask what happened to it?"

"It startled an armed Garnet.

Jinn made a sound of amusement low in her throat. "How unwise of it."

"And then a Citrine set it on fire."

The sound bloomed into a chuckle, rich and sweet. "If the casing weren't cracked, I do not think the heat would have affected the machinery. It is a highly-refined form of…fibreglass." She then quickly said a word in what sounded to Ruby like the Gem language before repeating, "Fibreglass. Please confirm translation."

"Close enough," Qrow told her. "The chassis?"

"An alloy of—" Jinn lapsed entirely into the Gem tongue, Qrow nodding along tensely. "Translation not available. My apologies."

"No need. Do you have any record of either material?"

"No. This is my first exposure to each one. I am now adding them to the archives."

Qrow grimaced as he screwed the lids back onto the specimen jars. "Gotta say, Jinn, that's not the answer I was hoping for."

"You know how I hate to disappoint you, but I cannot lie."

"And I wouldn't want you to." He raked his hair out of his face, clenching his fingers briefly among the strands before letting go. "Just makes things a little complicated, is all."

"Anything I can do to help?"

Qrow flashed a lopsided smile at the AI. "'Fraid not, gorgeous. That's all I got for ya."

"What a shame." Jinn shook her head. Her form began to fade, seemingly drawn back down into the pedestal. "A damn shame…"

It was even more of a shame, Ruby thought, that Yang wasn't up to teasing Qrow right now, as he immediately flashed them both an agonised look of abject mortification before hastily schooling his expression.

_Well. Guess that makes it my job!_

"So that's _two_ living encyclopaedias stumped." She peered around the sensor arrays at him. "Bad sign?"

Qrow held up a finger. "AI. Not alive," and Ruby gasped.

"That's a terrible thing to say about your special someone, Qrow!"

"Oookay, we're done here," Qrow decided, a mottled, glinting pattern briefly suffusing his body and especially his face—the Gem equivalent of blushing. "Come on, let's go."

"Are you sure?" Ruby grinned, tracing an arc on the floor with the toe of her boot. "We could leave you alone if you wanted to say a proper goodbye…"

"Oh, gross-gross-gross!" Yang exclaimed, waving her arms in front of her. Ruby cackled. The betrayed look on Qrow's face made it even better, and she wobbled in place, not quite doubling over.

It still put her torso inside sensor range, and the blue lights immediately went red. Ruby's laughter cut off sharply.

"Oops," she heard Yang say, and glanced over to see the Ametrine hastily pulling away from the sensors. "I didn't think I was—!"

"Y-yeah, that was me…"

"_Unauthorised soldier in Library Interface Centre, state your designation and mission. Unauthorised soldier in Library Interface Centre…"_

"Karma," Qrow declared, jabbing a finger toward her chest as he half-ran toward the door.

"If we survive, it was worth it!" Ruby hollered, racing after him with Yang at her side. The Ametrine already had her gauntlets summoned.

"What kind of defenses are we looking at?" she yelled up to Qrow.

"Not much we can't outrun by the time it sics 'em on us! It's still waiting for input! It's just a good thing it didn't get a clear read on your Gems—"

A whining noise sounded overhead, and a red beam the width of the corridor swiped over them, painfully bright in Ruby's eyes. Qrow swore loudly.

"Why do you people let me _say _shit like that!?"

"_Nonstandard composition detected. Defective unit identified. Commencing euthanisation protocols."_

"Is it talking about _me?"_ Yang demanded. "Oh _hell_ no!"

"What—what's euthanisation?" Ruby panted.

Hidden panels opened in the walls, a horde of small mechanical _things_ pouring out, some skittering over the floor with entirely too many legs, others buzzing through the air on sharp-edged rotors. An energy beam seared past Ruby's ear, and she yelped, clapping a hand to the spot and ducking.

"That answer your question?" Qrow shouted, summoning his scythe. Ruby frantically kicked one of the droids out of her way, calling out her own weapon. She hadn't thought to will it into the same shape as Qrow's, but she saw the shortened length of his slashes, the way he had to choke up on the haft and turn broad, sweeping motions into tight mincing half-steps. There was still an odd grace to it, but Ruby knew it for what it was: the mark of an expert who knew exactly how to compensate for the disadvantages imposed on him.

_I'm not there yet,_ Ruby accepted, adjusting her grip on her rifle. "Hey! If you can cut a path I can give us covering fire behind!"

"Are you—?"

Ruby hoped 'sure' was coming, not 'crazy', but Yang cut him off.

"She's got this! Do it!"

"Argh…!" Qrow growled, but he fell back a few paces, angling so that he and Yang formed a small wedge breaking through the tides of security droids like the prow of an ice-cutter. Ruby pivoted, swinging her rifle up and bracing the butt against her shoulder. With the Gems behind her and a swarm of enemies in front, she didn't have to worry much about aiming.

She tried anyway, feeling a surge of satisfaction every time she hit a droid dead-on, but speed and persistence was more important here, she knew. A sniper rifle wasn't the ideal weapon for this—she'd rather an AR or an SMG, or really anything with automatic fire based on her gaming experience—but unless she was ever lucky enough to befriend a Gem who could summon something like that, this was what she had.

Didn't Dr. Oobleck have a flamethrower? Maybe she needed to spend more time with him outside of tutoring.

"We're almost at the elevator! Keep it up!" Qrow shouted; the screeching of his scythe carving through metal was interspersed with the dull sounds of Yang's fists pounding against the droids, the throaty mechanical clanking of her gauntlets firing. The reports of Ruby's rifle, the droids or their remains ricocheting off the walls, rotors beating the air, spindly legs clicking, beams firing—the dark, red-lit corridor was a cacophony of sharp cracks and pops and blasts.

_I wonder if this is what it's like inside a popcorn machine._

The thought struck Ruby out of nowhere, and she couldn't suppress an out-of-place giggle before she shoved it away. She heard Yang shout and both of her gauntlets fire at once; flaming wreckage whipped past Ruby.

"They're getting bigger!" the Ametrine reported.

"Door still works!" came from Qrow in an off-topic but timely response. Ruby backed up a few more paces, still firing, then swung the rifle's barrel up and wheeled around, charging into the lift just after Qrow and Yang got there. Qrow held his scythe behind him with one hand, using the other to help Ruby into the car. Yang was reaching out, swatting droids away; she punted one with her foot just before the door clanged shut.

"What're the odds we're safe in here?" she asked.

"Slim." Qrow stepped back from the control panel, planting himself in front of the door with his scythe at the ready. "But it's a short ride down."

"We still have to shut down the reactor," Ruby realised.

"Yup. It's gonna suck. Can't risk a meltdown, though. Once the reactor's down, it'll take the main computer with it; should put all these machines back into sleep mode."

"Okay. So Ruby and I are going to have to cover you while you do your thing." Yang nodded, clenching her jaw. "And today just keeps getting worse."

"You kidding? I thought you'd be loving this."

"I'd love it this whole _adventure _didn't come with absolutely zero payoff, or if we were fighting to _win._ Instead we're trapped inside the world's biggest junker hoping we can get out before we get nuked and that's it, that's what winning looks like! A+ discipline, would not step out of line again!"

"It's _not—_ugh, never mind." Qrow shook his head sharply. "Lock down the attitude. We can talk about whether I deserve _after _we get outta here."

Yang rolled her eyes. "Sir, yes _sir,"_ she grumbled.

Ruby heard Qrow growl under his breath, but he said nothing. The door opened.

"Clear!" he barked and took off running, Yang loping easily after him, Ruby pumping her legs hard to keep up with them both.

They burst out into the reactor chamber with all its machinery and kept going, Qrow intent on the power controls and Ruby and Yang doing their best to scan the room as they followed him. The Pearl banished his scythe and ran his fingers over the holographic panel, flipping through settings and menus faster than Ruby could follow.

"Alright, it's cycling down!"

"_Insufficient power supply. Autonomous defensive units shutting down. Reallocating power reserves to integrated counteroffensive protocols."_

Ruby's hopes rose. "It means the robots, right? That means they can't chase us anymore!"

Qrow grinned. "Sure does. I mean, it also means that every automated weapon built into the actual ship is going to try to shoot us on the way out, but that's a science vessel for ya."

"It's still one less problem," Yang said in weary relief. "Now we've just got to go back the way we came and—"

"_Unauthorized activity detected in Prime Reactor Control Room. Sealing doors."_

They took off running for the far door before the announcement was even finished. The lights flipped to red just as they reached it.

"Oh no no _no _come _on!"_ Qrow snarled, slamming his palms against the metal. Ruby had seen him break steel like it was glass. Whatever material the ship's interior was made of, he couldn't even dent it.

_Oh no._ "Can we use the key?"

"No. This room can't be accessed without high-level permissions. The key belonged to a mid-level soldier. That's why the outer doors are the only ones we keep locked."

"So what the hell happened!?" Yang demanded. "If you've been here before, why is this the first time the system's freaked out about you messing with the reactor?"

"Science ships—_library _ships like this one have their systems linked into the logic circuits of the archive interface AIs."

Ruby looked up at the ceiling. "You mean the ship can _think?"_

"No, but it's a real beast at connect-the-dots, and it can direct a counteroffensive suite like nobody's business. _Damn it."_ Qrow groaned, running his fingers frantically through his hair. "It saw me moving with you through the droids, traced our path to the elevator, noticed the reactor cycling down unexpectedly while the security alert was still going, and pieced together what was going on."

"So—what, you _knew_ this would happen?" Yang's voice took on a shrill edge.

Ruby exhaled slowly, setting her rifle down on the floor and pulling out her scroll to check it. _No signal._ Well, they were in the middle of nowhere and behind multiple plates of thick metal. It figured.

"I knew it _might!_ It's still just a computer—it generates probabilities, not hard conclusions! I didn't know there'd be enough residual power to let the system do something like this once it figured us out!"

"Oh, well, so glad you decided to bitch about my _attitude_ instead of warning us!"

"And what exactly could you have done if I _had _told you? Complain about it some more?"

"We could have tried to come up with a _plan._ Remember _plans, _Qrow?" Yang leaned in closer, glaring up at him. "They're what smart people come up with to avoid getting into situations like _this!"_

"Guys, come on, please let's not do this again…"

"Oh right, yeah, sorry, forgot I was talking to the master of forethought here. What the hell _plan _would've helped?" Qrow spread his arms wide. "We _had _to shut down the reactor! The external rad shield can only block so much radiation. What if the damn thing exploded, huh? This whole chunk of Anima can kiss its ass goodbye, animals, trees, people, everything!"

"What happened to 'no one's talking about the reactor going critical', huh?"

"Guys—!"

"Yeah, well, that was before the system kicked into high gear trying to kill us!"

"Oh, gee, did you think you had everything under control and then suddenly it all fell apart? Whuh-oh!" Yang flung her hands in the air, exasperated. "Guess that means you don't care about our safety and you're a terrible person who should never be trusted with anything ever again!"

"_STOP IT!"_

Yang and Qrow both flinched, turning in shock to Ruby. She was breathing heavily, fists clenched.

"Just _stop," _she repeated. "This doesn't help any of us! Qrow, you're mad at Yang for something I did—something I _chose _to do! And Yang, you're just shouting back instead of trying to talk to him—"

"_Talk _to him?" Yang scoffed, pointing at Qrow. "He said I didn't care if—!"

"I _heard _what he said, Yang!" Ruby snapped. "And I saw the look on his face when it caught up to him. Qrow, was there something you wanted to say to Yang?"

"Why would I—?"

"_Was there something you wanted to say to Yang."_

"Ruby, we are stuck in the belly of a derelict Gem vessel with no way to call for help and the only person who'd know to come save us, _if _he can, won't even _start _to worry about us for _hours _and he'll have a pissed-off heavily-armed _spaceship _to deal with when he eventually comes to find us_._ Is this really what's important right now?"

"Apparently, yeah! Since you two are going to keep fighting instead of trying to help me find a way out of here, I guess getting you to actually _talk to each other _is _exactly _what's important right now!"

Qrow took a step back.

"You've been needling Yang since Dad grounded me and she's just been taking it because _she feels bad about what happened._ Then you crossed a line, and you _knew _it, and she snapped!" Ruby put her hands on her hips. "But instead of apologising, you pushed the same button again in Jinn's room when you were telling me about—"

Her eyes widened.

"About…Fusion." She looked at the door, mind racing. "How _much _bigger and stronger is a Fusion than a normal Gem?"

"Depends on the Gems," Yang said slowly, following her gaze. "And the Fusion."

"You're not seriously suggesting…"

"Yes. I am." Ruby turned back to them. "Why not? You guys have done it before, right? You've both Fused. I bet you've even Fused with each other. Family, right? You're close enough. It's been four thousand years. You have to have tried."

"I mean, yeah, but we haven't actually done it in…"

"…A couple decades," Qrow finished heavily. "Longer, maybe. Ruby, look, it's not that simple. You can't just, poof, Fuse. You have to be…open to it. To each other."

"You mean you can't be nursing grudges," Ruby said, crossing her arms.

He inhaled sharply. "Yeah."

"So…?"

"No. No way." But it was Yang who'd spoken, not Qrow. "Look, it's not that I don't want to get out of here, it's not that I _like _being stuck in some stupid cold war with Qrow, and…you're right, I think Charoite might just be big enough and bad enough to bust through that door."

"Charoite," Ruby echoed, eyes shining, momentarily distracted from the gravity of their situation. "So you turn into a different _kind _of Gem? Wait, why am I surprised, one of you can't just turn into a Pearl or a Quartz, you _have _to make something else together. Duh."

"But an apology isn't going to do anything to fix what's wrong!" Yang addressed Qrow, now, speaking over Ruby's mumbled epiphany. "It _hurt _when you said I didn't care what happened to Ruby!"

"I shouldn't have said that," Qrow said quickly, interrupting her. "I know you care. You've always cared. That was…stupid. Cruel. I don't know why I threw that at you."

"Because I seriously messed up and you weren't sure it was true anymore?" Yang walked over to the nearest terminal bank, sitting down on the floor with her back against it, her forearms resting atop her knees. Qrow followed her a few paces before stopping, hovering about a yard away from her, his fingers working as if he were trying to figure out what to do with his hands, his arms; heck, his whole body; he seemed to vacillate where he stood, torn between drawing closer and pulling away.

"Yang, i-if I didn't think you cared, I wouldn't've gotten so mad. …Hell, I _shouldn't _have gotten so mad, anyway; it was obvious you felt horrible about it."

Yang shook her head. "No, that isn't what I was trying to get at. You were angry because I messed up. It was legit! I deserved it! And then I kept going off on you for bringing Ruby along on a mission even though I _know _it's different from what I did and I…!"

"…Is it really that different, though?" Qrow asked quietly. "Like you said. I lost control of the situation. Now it's anybody's game."

"It's different," Yang insisted. "And lashing out about it was stupid, and petty. You don't get to hurt someone just because you're hurting."

"No," Qrow said after a pause. "I don't."

Yang blinked, looking up at him. "Oh—no, I didn't mean _you _you, I meant the 'in general' kind of you. Me. I meant me."

"Yeah. I know." Finally he closed the distance, sitting down next to her. Ruby held still and quiet where she was, as if they might notice her and startle like rabbits, breaking the tenuous peace of the moment. "But it works either way, doesn't it? I was angry and scared, not hurt, but it worked out the same."

"You were right though. Not when you said I didn't care. But the other stuff…"

"You know that phrase 'you're not wrong, but you didn't have to be a dick about it'? I wasn't wrong. I'm not sure I was really _right _either, 'specially by the time I was done, but I was definitely a dick about it. I'm sorry, Yang. I went too far, and I didn't have one good reason for doing it."

This seemed to frustrate Yang further. "No, don't _do _that. I'm in the wrong—I don't _get _to demand an apology!"

"Well, guess what, you don't have to demand one to get one. You don't even have to deserve it, if that's your next objection," he added as she opened her mouth again. "I think you do, though."

"But I _don't!"_

Qrow just looked at her. The edge of a smirk pulled at his lips.

"…Oh."

"Oh," he agreed, leaning back and letting out a sigh. "Neither of us're really putting our best foot forward today, huh?"

"No. No, we really aren't." Yang had seemed to be relaxing, but now she curled tighter around her knees. "What about the patrol thing?" she asked softly. Tentative.

"Eh, what about it?" Qrow waved a hand lazily. "What's done is done, no harm, no foul, don't do it again and here we are. Trapped in a broken down spaceship talking about our feelings. Kind of a low point, if I'm bein' honest."

They were quiet for a moment.

"I'm sorry too," Yang said. "But yeah, you were being kind of a dick."

Qrow shrugged. "That's my brand."

Yang laughed, the sound bursting out like it had been startled from hiding. Qrow chuckled too, smiling a little. She punched him in the shoulder—a little heavier than she normally did to Ruby, if the way Qrow rocked with the motion was anything to go by. _"Jerk."_

"See, now you're just insulting me for the fun of it. Show your elders a little respect."

"Oh, I got plenty of respect for you, gramps. Got a whole boatload of respect. Respect out the ears."

"I am _so_ glad you said ea—_ack!"_

"Whoa!"

Ruby catapulted into them as a burst of petals, impacting them as a solid force with an arm around each of them, almost knocking their heads together. "So you're done fighting now?" she asked plaintively, the words muffled in Qrow's shoulder. "Because it was getting really awkward and I'm sorry I shouted at you guys but I didn't know how else to get you to stop and—"

"Ruby, Ruby," Qrow cut her off. She looked up at him, and he grinned, rubbing a hand forcefully over her scalp. She yelped, pulling away.

"_Gah!_ What is with you people and my hair!?"

"Hey, it's not just yours." Qrow reached out toward Yang. She shot him a searing glare, and he pulled his hand back like it had been burned. "Eheh…"

Yang's expression softened. Then, hesitantly, she reached up and tangled her own fingers in her hair, ruffling it thoroughly.

"Best you're getting," she told him, hauling herself to her feet. Ruby got up as well, a process that involved a little more scrambling as she was half-sprawled on Qrow's lap thanks to her incautious landing. Yang held out her hand to Qrow, who took it, letting her help him up.

"So we really gonna do this?" he asked. Yang shrugged.

"I'm not seeing a lot of other options. Why, you nervous?"

He certainly looked it, every line of him tense, uncertainty creeping over his face. If he were an organic, Ruby thought he would probably be sweating.

"I haven't done this in awhile," Qrow said, his voice small. "With anyone. Not since…"

"Yeah," Yang admitted. "Me either. But it's not like you forget, right? We've done it before. We can do it again."

Qrow jerked his head in a nod.

"So how does this work?" Ruby inspected them closely, as if the instructions might be written on them somewhere. "Do you like, hold hands and chant some cool mystic rhyme, or shout to focus your _chi, _or stand close and meditate on your deep knowledge of one another…?

"Why do you always assume Gem powers work on anime logic?" Qrow asked her.

"Because they mostly kinda do?"

"Or! Or, does _anime _work on _Gem logic?"_ Yang suggested. "We were here first."

"It's not any of those things," Qrow said. "Some Gems get so attuned to each other they can Fuse from a single instant of contact. But most of us need more than that."

"Something that makes you focus on a partner, on what you're doing and what they're doing and how it all comes together, without overthinking it."

Qrow gave Yang an alarmed look, and she recoiled, mirroring his expression.

"Dancing! I'm talking about dancing! Sorry if that wasn't clear." She shuddered. "Eugh."

Ruby frowned. "The key to Gemkind's super-secret ultra-power tactic is…dancing." _Of course it is. It couldn't be something I'm _good _at, could it?_ "Does it have to be like a specific _kind _of dance, or…?"

"It's whatever feels right. It has to be natural. You can't force a stable Fusion."

"Uptempo for me," Yang chimed in. "House, electro, the non-stuffy kind of flamenco. Whatever's fun, fast, and a little bit crazy."

"Working title of your autobiography?"

"And _Qrow_ likes a tango," she added brightly, grin widening as he cringed slightly. "Hey, you asked the sexy giant database woman to tango yet?"

"You know what, shut up and move your feet, let's get this over with."

He spun her out, moving his feet gracefully, and—well. Ruby didn't know much about dancing. If she had, she would have known she was looking at something approximating swing dance with perhaps a touch of salsa. All she really knew, though, was that Yang seemed to be doing a lot of spinning, Qrow needed a lot of tight footwork and graceful arm movements to keep up, and when she looked at their faces she saw the tension and fear slipping away. Their steps grew looser, easier, but still kept perfect time even without any music. They were relaxed. They were having fun, Ruby realised, and couldn't help smiling to see it. They were happy—they were _glowing._

They were _literally _glowing, their bodies shifting, glimmering until they were just motes of light intermingling in the same fast, rolling rhythm as the dance. She watched, awed, as the light built and spread, the dark points of Qrow and Yang's Gemstones drifting through the air and settling at a distance from each other that Ruby hadn't expected. A distance that grew as the unmistakable shape of a very large right arm extended from the cloud of light, Yang's Gemstone seated as always just below the elbow. It had turned opaque, its familiar gradient of violet and yellow replaced by different shades of purple that swirled around each other beneath its cut face. Some shades were like the lilac of her eyes; others were so dark as to be indistinguishable from black.

Swiftly but gradually, the rest of Charoite's body filled in, Qrow's Gemstone hidden from view as the Fusion's torso solidified. Their body was a dusty shade of violet-grey, mottled very slightly with paler patches that hinted at the yellow that was Yang's primary colouration; the different shades of grey bled seamlessly into each other, at least at the points Ruby could see. Most of Charoite's skin was hidden by the long, wide-legged charcoal-grey trousers they wore, almost like hakama, and their wrapped shirt of creamy off-whites and rich browns. Their feet were socked and sandalled, but not the way Taiyang wore the combo—these were those fancy Mistralian platform sandals, what were they called again? Geta. Their hair was streaked purple like their Gemstones. It was full and wavy, falling to their shoulders, and once they had fully materialised they tucked one side behind their ear with a soft snort of exasperation.

"The sacrifices we make to look this good, am I right?" they asked Ruby sympathetically, winking at her. At least Ruby assumed winking was still the right word to describe the sight of two out of four eyes blinking at her, both on the right side of Charoite's face: one set of eyes was a shocking orchid-pink, the other blue-violet, those latter two set above the outside corners of the first, pink pair. Thankfully, they still only had one set of eyebrows. These arced down at a shallow angle from about halfway over the bluish eyes, ending high above a point just past centre on the lower eyes, giving the Fusion the appearance of a permanently sly, slightly mocking expression.

"Well?" Charoite prompted, holding out their arms, presenting themselves for inspection. "What do you think?" The words came out almost teasing in their androgynous contralto, but Ruby knew the features which made up the face of this familiar stranger, and she thought she saw a flicker of uncertainty there. Her own trepidation melted away.

"You look amazing," she assured them. Her wide smile turned slightly nervous as she added, "It's…nice to meet you?"

Charoite laughed, their shoulders relaxing. "I guess you _are _meeting me, even if I already know you, huh?" They lifted a hand. "I'd shake your hand, but I think I'd end up shaking _you."_

"You, uh. You _are_ kinda tall." Ruby laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. Charoite was about the same size Jinn had been, standing more than twice as high as Ruby's own admittedly short stature. Her comment earned another rolling, rich laugh from the Fusion.

"_Oh, _I wish Oz were here. I make him feel short, he _hates _it _so much!"_ Charoite clapped their hands together in delight. "Oh! I almost forgot. Hang on…"

They reached behind themselves, unfastening Qrow's cloak which had, Ruby was surprised to see, made it through the Fusion unchanged. Charoite wrapped it around their neck like a scarf—like _Yang's _scarf, though it left less of a gap between its ragged lower edge and Charoite's higher neckline.

"_There _we go," the Fusion said in evident satisfaction. "I love the thing to bits, but I can't have it fouling my wings, now can I?"

_Wait._

"What?"

The word was barely out of Ruby's mouth before a pair of great black wings unfurled from Charoite's back, feathered and crowned by sharp talons; that and their curvature recalled the wings of a bird of prey—or perhaps a dragon?—more than those of Qrow's eponymous favoured other shape, but the plumage was unmistakable.

"Come on," Charoite said playfully, rolling all four of their eyes in perfect unison. "Who needs a second set of arms when you could have _these _beauties instead?"

"Okay, you might actually be the coolest person I've ever met," Ruby squeaked, pressing the knuckles of her folded hands together in front of her mouth.

"Hell yeah I am. No 'might' about it." Charoite smirked. "Well…the other kind of _might, _maybe. And that makes as good a segue as anything else. Ruby, hon, would you mind getting behind me? And get ready to run as soon as I say. Things are about to get a little _explosive."_

Eyes widening, Ruby hastened to comply as a familiar shimmering at Charoite's wrists heralded the appearance of Yang's gauntlets. The Fusion punched their fists together, and the gauntlets blazed with light, shifting and changing; when Ruby could see them again, they had grown to cover Charoite's hands right up to the knuckles, a curved blade like that of Qrow's scythe forming a smooth, wickedly-sharp arc across each hand. Then Charoite lashed out with both fists, blades gouging into the door with an unholy shriek. The Fusion yanked them free and kept hammering at the door, which bent and buckled and warped under the onslaught until finally it exploded out into the corridor, taking bits of the surrounding bulkhead with it.

"Go!" Charoite shouted, ducking down and barrelling into the corridor. Energy blasts fired from concealed turrets Ruby hadn't noticed on the way in as she stumbled after the Gem. Charoite seemed to be having trouble dodging them on account of their size, snarling in pain as one blast sizzled against their shoulder.

"Wait!" Ruby called. "Don't get too far ahead!"

"I won't leave you," Charoite vowed—which was actually really touching, Ruby thought with a little buzz of happiness, but not what she meant.

"If we're close, I think I can shield us!"

They laughed wildly. "I won't say no to that!"

Ruby focused, willing the shield to come into being, and a rosy-red bubble blossomed around them. Strangely, while the energy beams glanced right off it, the sounds of weapons fire were still quite audible, only slightly muffled.

"_Uhn."_ Ruby grunted as the effort of maintaining the shield suddenly made itself known; it felt like she was carrying a weight much heavier than her backpack on her shoulders.

"You okay?" Charoite asked in alarm.

"Y-yeah, just, we need to hurry," Ruby panted. "I don't think I can keep this up for long. Oh—!"

Charoite half-turned—all they could manage in the confinement of the corridor—and scooped her up in both of their large hands, cradling her against their chest. Ruby hooked her arms over their shoulder.

"You don't have to—"

"No shame in not using your own two feet, 'specially when mine are more than big enough for all of us," Charoite said briskly. "You keep that fire off us. I'll get us out of here."

_"Unauthorised Fusion detected," _the _Lamp_'s systems announced. "_UnFuse immediately and report to your superiors for disciplinary action or you will be fired upon until discorporated. This is your only warning. Your compliance is mandatory."_

Charoite shouted back some awfully detailed ideas of what the system's disembodied voice could do with its mandatory compliance, and Ruby winced. Yup. There was no denying which Gems Charoite had Fused from.

Suddenly Charoite slammed to a stop, and Ruby felt a growl building up in their chest. "Oh you gotta be _kidding _me!"

"What? What is it?"

"A sensor grid." Charoite swore. "It could just be sensors, or it could be tripwires, or something even worse that I'm not sadistic enough to dream up." They were moving again, even as Charoite continued to explain. "Doesn't really matter either way. This shield's too damn big for you to hold up under fire while I knock down all the doors between us and whatever other exit there might be. This is the last intersection before we'll be back where we started; there's no telling how far through the ship we'd need to go or what kind of permissions we'd need to get there."

"Wait, but what if I can't hold the shield against whatever's about to hit us!?"

"Not an option!" Charoite looked down at her, four-eyed gaze unusually intense and serious. "You got this, Ruby. The way Yang and Qrow believe in you? I have _all _of that. Hell, I wouldn't be here if you hadn't knocked some sense back into them—I might as well be _made _of that. Faith, kiddo, faith. We can do this. We're gonna be okay."

"We're gonna be okay," Ruby repeated. "We can do this. We can do this."

"Alright. We're almost there. Three…two…"

"I can do this," she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Here we go!"

Ruby pushed energy into the shield, feeling it nearly buckle as the world exploded into thunderous noise and hot white light that shone mercilessly even through her eyelids.

"_Son of a—!"_ she heard, the rest of Charoite's numerous invectives lost in the tumult of sound. Ruby curled more tightly against them, letting her focus narrow to the sound of her own ragged breathing and the terrible necessity to keep the shield up no matter what, even if it hurt, even if it felt like she was being compressed by the force pressing on the outside of the bubble.

Charoite's war cry cut through the cacophony; their body gave a lurch, and all the air in Ruby's lungs pushed right out of her body in sheer _relief _as the pressure abated, her eyes flying open. She saw forked bolts of electricity still arcing through the corridor behind them.

"Talk about catching lightning in a bottle, huh?" Charoite said brightly. "…No? Nothing?"

"Your Yang is showing," Ruby wheezed.

"Yeah, she comes out more under pressure. Adrenaline junkies. What're you gonna do? Watch your head!"

Charoite ducked as they warned her, and Ruby hunkered down, seeing the doorframe just miss the crown of the Fusion's head. And then they were out, free and clear, in the dappled grey shadows and skeletal remains of the _Lamp of Knowledge'_s outer hull. She could see stars through the gaps overhead.

"You can drop the shield now, hon," Charoite assured her. Ruby let it go with a long sigh, slumping in the Fusion's hold.

"Let's never do that again," she mumbled, pulling another laugh from them.

"No promises."

* * *

Charoite alighted a few yards away from the warp pad near Mokusei, setting Ruby down gently on legs that felt like they might finally be willing to support her. The moonlight turned the surface of the warp to silver.

"We're going straight home," Charoite said. "Well, as close to straight as possible. Beacon, then home. Someone can get the key back to Leo tomorrow."

"Mmkay," Ruby agreed, stifling a yawn. "Will I ever stop being so sleepy after missions? Feel like a toddler missing her afternoon nap…"

"I wouldn't really know, would I?" Charoite pointed out. "Well. The key needs to be locked up in Beacon, and you need to get home to Patch, which sounds a whole lot like I need to be two people again. Kind of a shame. I missed being out and about."

"I wouldn't mind seeing you again."

"I'm sure you will." With one last smile, Charoite glowed, their light drifting apart, their Gemstones dancing through the air, each pulling a measure of that light towards themselves. Soon it had gathered into the discrete forms of Yang and Qrow, both of whom looked nearly as tired as Ruby felt.

"Oh my _gawd _why did we run into a tunnel of lightning?" Yang groaned. "It was metal as hell but holy _crap."_

Ruby hugged her tightly, the Ametrine returning the gesture without missing a beat; she felt Qrow rest a hand on her back between Yang's.

"We good, firecracker?" he asked softly.

Yang gave Ruby another squeeze. Her hand shifted so Ruby could no longer feel it, though her arm remained in place. Resting it on top of Qrow's hand, Ruby realised, and smiled.

"Yeah. We're good."

* * *

Qrow was still debating internally whether he or Yang should see Ruby home when they materialised on the Beacon warp and his decision was made for him.

"You girls go on ahead," he said, patting Yang's arm as he stepped down. "We'll be along shortly."

"'We'? Yang echoed, following his gaze. It was earlier in the evening on this continent, the sun having just set, but it was dark enough for her to easily see what he had: there was a light in the clocktower, shining softly through the glass face. "Gotcha. I'll make sure Ruby gets something to eat before she crashes."

"Not gonna crash!" Ruby protested, nearly bouncing in place. "I slept through part of the flight over! I'm awake now!"

Yang shrugged. "Hey, I just feed you and make sure you're near something you can collapse on. That is my expert childcare technique. The rest is up in the air."

"Hey! I'm going to be fourteen in a few months, you know!"

"_Five _months."

"Four and a half!"

"Oh, we're startin' early with this, this year." Qrow raised his hand in farewell as Yang warped herself and Ruby away while the hybrid girl was still mid-argument. He shook his head, chuckling, and tucked his hands into his pockets, walking slowly down the central path through the courtyard, past the arches and the sounds of running streams, past the Autumnal Bloodwoods that were the only known specimens to take outside Forever Fall. He could imagine they were standing guard over Summer's stone form; he sure trusted them better than the knot of invented Huntsmen and Huntresses carved around her. Not that he wanted to see his _own_ face there, but there were others, fallen friends who'd deserved a place at her side.

Summer had put her foot down on that, though. _"It's more propaganda than art," _she'd said. _"It can be as beautiful as it wants, but it's there to remind people that the _great Rose Quartz _is watching over them." _She'd rolled her eyes, her voice taking on a softer tone as she added, _"I won't use our friends like that."_

Qrow had wanted to argue, because the fountain had promised to be a beautiful piece even in the earliest planning stages and he didn't think it deserved that level of cynicism, but Summer had set her jaw in that way Ruby did now, the way that said she'd made up her mind on some level too deep to be moved. And after all, the fountain was never meant to be a memorial to the dead, because Summer was never meant to die.

He'd formed Charoite today, against all expectations. He wondered if he'd ever form Almandine again.

He shook the thought out of his head, picking up the pace. He could have shifted forms and flown up to the tower, but there was a peace to be found in the routine of walking across campus, even if the Academy was gone and Beacon was silent and empty, every lamppost and window cold and dark save the one which drew him on. The route was achingly familiar, from the stone underfoot to the way the wind wound between the buildings, carrying with it the scents of summer growth and high mountain air. How many times had he done this? And how many decades since he last had?

The tower doors were unlocked, of course, and Qrow threw them wide for old time's sake, remembering the days when they stood open all hours in such clement weather as this. The ground floor of the tower was even darker than the rest of campus, illuminated only by what little light spilled through the open doors, but Qrow could find his way here blindfolded. He skirted the base of the transmit tower, heading for an elevator; he could see they were powered on, their switches backlit in a tealish green. Looked like he wasn't the only one who'd decided to take the scenic route.

Qrow's fingers keyed in the access code for the former headmaster's office without any conscious input from him, habit ingrained over thousands of years that mere hundreds had failed to erase, and the elevator rose swiftly. It was a smoother ride than the _Lamp_'s long-neglected lifts, and without fighting years of disrepair it ran faster as well, delivering him to the top of the tower in under half a minute. The doors retracted and he stepped out into a familiar tableau: Ozpin at his desk, still in motion as he looked up past the holo-interface to see who had entered. A few things were missing—for one, the office was lit only by the lighting strips around its edge, not even a faint glow of green shining through from above. For another, the desk was empty, no pens or paperwork, not even a mug of cooling cocoa. Strangest of all was the quiet, the clicking of the gears in Ozpin's desk barely louder than the sound of a wristwatch, the axles and cogwheels overhead still and silent even as Qrow's ears strained to hear them turn.

"Qrow." His voice was too soft to echo in even so spacious and empty a room as this. If he weren't a Gem, the sound of it would make Qrow think he'd woken him from sleep. "What news?"

"Not much. Jinn didn't know what to make of it. Says the design looks Homeworld but she can't match it to anything." He paused, almost reluctant to say what came next, but Ozpin was looking at him expectantly. "She described the materials used as 'refined'. And she didn't recognise the metal, but the composition…it's mostly non-terrestrial elements."

Ozpin exhaled air he must have drawn in out of acquired habit, leaning back in his chair. His pale green fingers worked their way into his hairline, tugging and combing through it, briefly exposing his deep green Gemstone and the characteristic silvery wisps at its heart before he seemed to realise what he was doing, dropping his hand and clenching it into a fist.

"Something developed in the last days of the war, perhaps?" he suggested. "After we brought down the _Lamp _but before the final battle? Jinn wouldn't have access to anything added to Homeworld's archives after the crash."

"Could be," Qrow said, because it was a possibility and it was one they both needed to latch onto for sanity's sake. "It's more likely than the alternative."

"Is it?" Ozpin murmured. "A shame we couldn't get a more conclusive answer. Still. Any information is better than none. How were Yang and Ruby?"

"Um…" Qrow tilted his head, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets as if that would help somehow. "Little rocky at first with Yang. We worked it out. Had a talk. Blew some shit up. Unrelated, a scanner identified Yang as an off-colour and the entire ship tried to kill us."

"Oh dear."

"Yeah. None of the three of us should go back there until someone can wipe the records of us from the security system. Plus side, Ruby's getting better with that gun. Ruby's getting better, period, actually; think there's some good coming out of those nights she spent playing superhero."

"Hm. Perhaps we should speed her training along."

"Probably not a bad idea." He'd been trying to find a good segue, but nothing was presenting itself and he had to say it or he was going to explode. "Also Yang and I Fused."

It wasn't often he got to strike Ozpin speechless, and he couldn't keep a grin off his face as he savoured the blank mask that Ozpin's features immediately schooled themselves into—his equivalent of wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

"You formed Charoite?"

"Yep." Qrow bounced slightly on his toes, still grinning with delight.

The mask fell, and Ozpin smiled as well, warm and pleased. "That's wonderful, Qrow."

"Oz, we _Fused!" _he burst out, not caring that he was repeating himself. "And it was—it was amazing, like before, I don't know what I was scared of—!"

"Alright, alright." Ozpin gestured for him to calm, his tone edged in laughter. "It's a good thing you don't need to breathe, my dear; you'd asphyxiate from excitement."

"Oh, just let me have this!"

He chuckled. "Certainly." The Garnet braced himself against the desk as he stood; Qrow didn't see his cane. He must have had it collapsed and tucked away. "How was Yang?" he asked, circling the desk.

"She was Yang. Threw herself into it and didn't look back." Qrow beamed, his expression softening as he turned to meet Ozpin face-to-face. "I miss being like that."

"Speaking as someone who cares, it was incredibly stressful when you were like that." Ozpin's smile turned wry. "I'm glad you've learned to take better care of yourself. And I'm glad you're able to open yourself up so completely to another person again."

"I was thinking..." Qrow looked away. "If I can Fuse with Yang..." He eyed Ozpin sidelong, silent, hopeful.

Ozpin watched him for a moment. Then he reached over, sliding his hand along the glass surface in a gesture that brought the light strips around the edge of the ceiling up to a brighter glow. Qrow kept his eyes on him as the Garnet walked a few paces out towards the centre of the tower floor.

Ozpin turned back to face him and held out a hand, eyes sparkling. "Well, old friend?"

Smiling, Qrow stepped forward and placed his hand in Ozpin's.

* * *

_**A/N: **__**Charoite's design isn't just gratuitously Japanese; I'd always intended for them to have wings in lieu of extra arms, and somewhere around the point that I was trying to figure out 'pants or skirt'? my brain spun up hakama. That tripped a chain of dominoes that ultimately came to rest at karasu tengu, a winged swordsman yōkai inspired in part by a crow and which you've probably seen somewhere in the great wide world of Japanese and Japanese-inspired media. So that became the chief basis for Charoite's design.**_

_**Next chapter: More Weiss, more Zwei, more worldbuilding. Thanks for reading! See you then!**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: Yup, short chapter. Sort of. There's a reason for that. And it's only partly the fact that it's been a relatively long time since I updated and I was starting to feel anxious about that. But this is end note business, and I'll leave the rest 'til then. In the meantime…**_

_**So **_**technically**_** Ruby's still grounded—as in, less than 12 hours remaining to freedom—but somehow she's convinced **_**someone**_** to okay a sleepover with Weiss. As long as said sleepover takes place on Patch, allowing Ruby to keep to at least the letter of her punishment until the clock runs out. Weiss has mentally prepared herself for her first night away from the lap of luxury, and she's done her best to brace for Ruby's Gem family's special version of 'normal', but the biggest curveball coming her way—and Ruby's—comes from the direction she least expected.**_

_**Alright, here we go! As always, I hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

**Honalee**

It put a smile on Weiss's face to think how much her father would _hate _the thought of her travelling alone, _especially _via public transportation—enough of a smile to displace her own vague discomfort with crushing into a full airbus. If it bothered her father _that _much, surely he'd have provided an alternative; she'd be going to school on Patch every day, and it wasn't like there was a bridge spanning the channel. The plan as currently outlined involved Klein making a round trip each at the start and end of her school day, but Weiss certainly wasn't about to put him through all that for a frivolous visit like this.

She knew it was _technically _dangerous to be a Schnee going around unguarded, but Winter had taught her some self-defense, and her sun hat kept her distinctive hair from catching the light as much and drawing attention. Besides, she'd never been so much as threatened back in Atlas; here in Vale, surprisingly few people seemed to even realise she was anyone worth paying attention to. It was a little annoying, but something of a relief as well. She'd never realised how…_stifled _she'd felt before, with everyone's eyes on the heiress-presumptive of the SDC. Winter had never renounced her inheritance, nor had their father disowned her, but the rumour mill of Atlesian high society had been convinced that one of those two scandals was on the horizon ever since Winter had joined the military.

For now, though, Weiss remained the spare and not the heir, and if that gave her a little more freedom to move around? So much the better.

She was still relieved when she was able to disembark, though, unable to suppress a small shudder when she was _finally _done being crowded by strangers. She held the strap of her overnight bag tightly as she lifted her chin and strode through the throng as best she could, scanning around the terminal for the exit. Then she'd need to double-check the directions Ruby had texted her and—

"Weiss-Weiss-Weiss over here!" she heard, turning towards the source of the high, excited voice. She saw Ruby on tip-toe next to a vending machine, a pack of cheap cookies clenched in one hand while the other frantically waved. The hybrid girl beamed once she saw Weiss change direction towards her.

"Aren't you still grounded?" Weiss asked dubiously, raising an eyebrow. "Aren't we specifically doing this at your house _because_ you're still grounded?"

Ruby wrinkled her nose up like a disgruntled cat. "It's the last day. I talked Qrow and Ozpin into letting me come get you so you wouldn't get lost! We're not allowed to take any detours, though. Straight home!"

"I could have found my way," Weiss said, stung.

"I mean, probably, but this is the first time they've let me out of the house unsupervised in _ten days, _Weiss." She hugged the vending-machine cookies close to her chest, staring at Weiss with wide, pitiful eyes. "I haven't had junk food in almost two weeks. Qrow hid the snack basket somewhere and none of us can find it."

"…Neither of you, you mean."

Ruby shook her head solemnly. "He didn't want Ozpin leaving anything out where we could get it. Ozpin's been too proud to say anything but I've caught him searching. Wouldn't admit that's what he was doing, though. He is _smooth_ under pressure."

"So…you used me as an excuse to reach the bus station vending machines." Weiss sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I guess it's better than you thinking I was incompetent…"

"You are my best friend and your wellbeing is very important to me," Ruby said over the sound of straining polymer, punctuated by a muted _pop!_ as the bag tore open. "C'mon. We'd better get going so I don't get in trouble. That's everything, right?" she asked, looking at Weiss's bag.

"Yes." With a touch of pride, she added, "I learned how to pack compactly from Winter."

"Cool! I figured you'd pack light for a sleepover, but I didn't wanna charge off if you had more stuff."

"Compactly," Weiss repeated, hiking the strap into a different position on her shoulder. "Not lightly."

"Oh…" Ruby winced at the reddened strap imprint. "We can try wheeling it on my bike?"

"That's probably a good idea."

* * *

"Mmm, corn syrup," Ruby moaned, jamming another tiny, crumbling chocolate-chip cookie into her mouth. _"Preservatives,_ oh my gods."

"Mouth closed to chew, mouth _empty_ to speak," Weiss chided her, wheeling the bike gingerly over another large crack. The handlebars had started in Ruby's grip, but one too many incidents of either the bike or the cookie bag nearly hitting the ground as Ruby tried to eat had seen Weiss heaving a mighty sigh and taking over. "Ugh, when was the last time anyone resurfaced this road?"

"Iuwwo." Ruby finally deigned to swallow her mouthful. "You sure you don't want a cookie?"

"Oh, I'm sure." She grunted in irritation, steering around a pothole. "You rode down this? How did you not go flying off the seat?"

"It's not that bad. I've got really good shocks, like, Gem-tech good. Yang likes fixing up vehicles."

"Bicycles count?"

"Pedal bikes can be cool! We had plans for a sweet set of rocket boosters, but Dad put his foot down."

"Good call," Weiss said dryly.

Zwei barked once, as if in agreement. He was trotting along beside her, dutifully matching pace. No one had looked twice at the rose-coloured corgi outside the airbus station. Were people already that used to him around here? Or just to Gem craziness in general? She wasn't sure how the demographics stacked up in Patch, like, whether there were more Gems here percentage-wise than in the City of Vale or anywhere else. She was pretty sure she remembered that Gems tended to spread out rather than cluster together—so actually, four Gems on one small island (or three Gems and a half-human hybrid) was already a lot even if there weren't any others.

And here she was, deliberately heading straight for the epicentre of all things weird.

Weiss wasn't sure how Ruby had talked her assorted guardians into letting her have a sleepover on her last day of being grounded, but the argument she'd presented to Weiss had been simple: if Weiss were present right from the start on Ruby's first day of freedom, they could make up more of the lost time from the previous ten days in one go. Weiss couldn't fault her logic, so she'd packed her bag and told Klein she was leaving.

"Oh shoot, Klein," Weiss said suddenly, stopping and leaning Ruby's bike gingerly against herself as she rooted through her bag. "I promised I'd call him when I got here."

"Here." Ruby shoved the cookie bag into her hoodie pocket and grabbed the handlebars, holding the bike steady. "The chain's greased, it'll stain your dress."

"Thank you," Weiss said, relieved; she couldn't let go fast enough. Evidently the cookies were gone, as Ruby resumed walking with the bike while Weiss talked to Klein.

"…Yes. I think we're almost to Ruby's house." She glanced at Ruby, who nodded.

"_Very good. And, er…"_

"Klein?" It wasn't like him to hesitate.

"_Should your father contact you, and you find yourself compelled to…conceal your itinerary, as it were," _Klein said rather delicately, _"do please share any information that may help me corroborate your account."_

A small smile worked its way onto Weiss's face, gratitude warm and humbling in her chest. "You don't have to do that for me."

"_Nonsense. It's only natural to prioritise my mistress's needs."_

"Still…"

"_Oh, don't you give me that, girl."_ Weiss bit her lip and held in her laughter as Klein's polished accent slipped. _"We're only just shot of the man! No need to call him down on us so soon, is there?"_

"No. You're right, we don't. Thank you, Klein. Just…" Even though Ruby was the only one around to hear, Weiss lowered her voice. "Don't do anything to get yourself in trouble, okay?"

"_Let me worry about my standing with your father." _Perfect Butler Klein was back. _"Your only concerns for the next thirty hours are to have fun and be safe."_

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow."

"_Of course, Miss Schnee. Take care."_

Snake-quick, Ruby leaned towards her. "Bye, Mr. Klein!" she yelled, causing Weiss to flinch away, wincing. She ended the call on Klein's chuckling.

"Sorry," Ruby whispered, smiling sheepishly as she drew away again.

"How can someone so small produce so much noise?" Weiss asked the universe at large, rubbing at her ears.

"Hey! You're only a couple inches taller than me!" Ruby stuck out her tongue. "I could be tall too if I wanted to walk around on stilt-shoes."

"_Heels._ And how thick are the soles on those boots?"

Ruby mumbled something indistinct, going pink. "Oh!" she said quickly, pointing. "That's the street my dad lives on, by the way! Well, it's not really a street. It's more like a really long driveway that branches off into a couple of shorter ones along the way."

"That's what a street is, Ruby," said Weiss, before she looked closer and realised that for all it was marked with a road sign, it was just a one-lane gravel track leading into the fringes of the woods. "Oh."

"Yup. Dad lives right at the end, so if you ever need to find his house, just keep walking until you run out of gravel!"

Weiss glanced down at the very footwear Ruby had made fun of. "…Is _your _driveway paved?"

Ruby was clearly trying to suppress a snicker, not far behind on Weiss's train of thought. "Yeah. Dad used to keep his truck there before I was born. It's closer to the ferry port."

"Wouldn't that mean he'd have to walk all the way to your house just to use his own car?"

"Well, yeah, but it's not that far and I guess he spent more time with the Gems back then anyway. He still drives over before he goes out on hunts to tell us where he's going and pick up extra gear, like containment capsules and stuff."

"I thought Huntsmen were all freelancers. Why does he check in like that?"

"Safety! Like you calling Klein. You always tell someone when you go hunting alone so they'll know something's wrong if they don't hear from you." Ruby shrugged, looking slightly embarrassed. "And I made him promise he'd always tell me before he left."

"Oh." Weiss thought back to all the times she'd come to breakfast to see the head of the table empty, her father gone away on another business trip late at night or early in the morning. Of course, he wouldn't want to disturb his children's sleep. It made sense.

Ruby chattered on as they walked, pointing out things she thought were of interest and answering Weiss's questions, until at last they came to a narrow turn-off that led into a high tunnel of old, thick-trunked maples and birches. She angled towards it, and Weiss followed, spotting a beaten-metal mailbox on a sturdy post right at the edge of the treeline. So this wasn't a road in even name—just a driveway long enough that she couldn't see the house it belonged to.

Weiss realised as they went on that they were no longer in the outskirts of the woods but had ventured into the forest itself, thick undergrowth lining the driveway to either side. Leaves rustled loudly as the wind picked up, spots of sun and shade dancing over the girls and the path beneath their feet, the bike's wheels rolling smoothly over asphalt that had clearly seen far less travel than the main road.

It was only a minute or so before the trees began to thin again, revealing a clearing in which stood a pretty little house of wood and stone, with cross-hatched gables and ivy creeping towards the eaves. Even if she'd had a keen interest in architecture, Weiss would have been hard pressed to put a name to the style of the house. Something about the way it all fit together made her think it had been added to and at least partially rebuilt more than few times, though. It didn't look like the sort of house one planned to build so much as the sort one ended up with in fits and starts of trial and error. It seemed sturdy, though, and well cared-for; someone here was clearly at least a little house-proud.

Or at least, Weiss thought, her eyes lingering on the riot of red, orange, and yellow roses climbing towards the eaves, someone _had_ been, and the routine had persisted. There wasn't much of a garden besides the roses, hardy columbines, coral bells, and bleeding hearts all in bloom around the foundation and hemmed in by an assortment of small rough rocks. There wasn't much of a lawn, either; the treeline was only a few yards out from the front door. Off to the right of the house, though, the trees stood in a fairly narrow band; she could see sky through them, and an expanse of uninterrupted grass.

"And this," Ruby declared proudly, "is home!" She glanced nervously at Weiss.

"It's…charming."

She'd meant it, actually, but she'd hesitated too long; Ruby's face fell. Weiss hastened to add, "I like the roses. Are they different kinds?"

Ruby brightened. "Nope! It's some kind of special variety that blooms a bunch of different colours. I don't know when Mom planted them, but they're in all the old pictures."

"Do you take care of them?"

She shook her head, eyes wide. "No. No one takes care of them. We appease them with libations of flat cola and coffee grounds and they allow us to live. Whoever draws the short straw has to prune them back from the windows once a year."

"…Um?"

Ruby patted her arm gently. "Don't think too hard about it. Just breathe in, accept it, and breathe out. You'll feel better."

Weiss eyed the roses warily. Heavy, fragrant blooms nodded agreeably to her as they passed by on the way to the garage.

"I just need to put my bike away," Ruby explained. "Do you want me to get your bag?"

"No, I've got it."

She waited outside, falling into step beside Ruby again once she emerged and headed up the walk to the front door.

"Not sure where everyone'll be, but Yang's stuck home until tomorrow, too, so at least she'll be here. After you!" Ruby turned the doorknob and shoved, gesturing Weiss forward as the door swung easily inward. Zwei slipped around her legs and trotted in first. The walk was well shaded, so it didn't take long for Weiss's eyes to adjust once she was inside. She froze.

"Weiss?" Shutting the door, Ruby eased her way around her, silent as she, too, took in the sight of the living room.

"What in the gods' names," Weiss began flatly.

"Hey Qrow, hey Ozpin, what—what'cha doin' there?" Ruby asked in a tone of false cheer.

"They are straight-up breaking things," Yang's voice issued from the couch, the Gem herself invisible from the doorway. "It's actually pretty great to watch."

"Not breaking," Ozpin corrected her in a soft, distracted tone, not looking away from his task. "Dismantling."

Well, that explained why the TV was on mute, some cookie-cutter procedural airing daytime reruns in silence. It did _not_ go a long way to explaining the mess of cogwheels, springs, crystals, screws, metal plates and more that were scattered across the floor in what was clearly an intentional array, though Weiss could discern no actual useful pattern. At the centre of it all sat Ozpin and Qrow, the former in an armchair frowning at some boxy piece of metal in hand that he was currently attacking with a screwdriver, the latter leaning against the side of that chair as he sat cross-legged on the floor, peering down at some sort of flat plate covered in tiny gears which he was prodding at with a pair of long tweezers.

"I was only gone for half an hour," Ruby said weakly.

"Oh, this is only like, twenty minutes worth of destruction," Yang assured her, a half-gloved yellow hand appearing over the sofa arm and gesturing at the ordered chaos. "Took less than _half_ that for Oz to break Qrow into helping." She snorted, her tone light and teasing as she added, "Weak!"

"To _persuade _Qrow," Ozpin insisted. "Please."

"Oh, like you'd have held out longer. Hey, boy," Qrow added in a gentler tone as Zwei came to sit beside him; he rubbed his free hand between Zwei's ears with obvious fondness.

Yang finally poked her head into visibility, raising her eyebrows at Qrow. "Uh, remember that whole thing where I still have to do as I'm told for the next ten hours?"

Qrow blinked at her, processing that, then leaned his head back against the chair arm, looking up at Ozpin as best he could. "She's right. This is Yang work. Why am I doing Yang work?"

"Whoa, hey, I was just pointing out I wouldn't have to be talked into helping!"

"See, she just volunteered."

"I never said that!"

"It was implied. C'mon, Oz, free labour, no mind games required."

"Persuasion is not coercion," Ozpin said patiently, still not looking up. "I made my case and asked you to help. I even said _please. _You had every opportunity to say no."

"But you didn't." Yang grinned. "So I guess you're just whipped…?"

Her smug, shark-like smile didn't waver as Qrow chucked the long tweezers at her. She didn't move to dodge them. Instead Ozpin flicked his screwdriver and batted them out of the air. They fell to the rug with a muffled clatter as he gave the gadget he'd been working on one last critical look before depositing it gently on a side table and turned his attention at last to Ruby and Weiss.

"Come now, we've been terribly rude," he chided the other Gems, smiling pleasantly. "A prompt return, young Rose; thank you for keeping to the terms of our agreement. And a good afternoon to you, Miss Schnee. Welcome to Patch."

"Good afternoon, Professor Ozpin," Weiss replied, nodding respectfully. She'd previously concluded he was the sane one, though recent evidence was putting that conclusion to the test.

Ozpin chuckled. "Oh, just Ozpin will do. I'm afraid my academic title is long defunct." His smile looked a little wistful now.

"Uh, we're here too, y'know," Yang said, laying her arms along the back of the couch. "Hi."

"Hello, Yang," Weiss sighed. She was unprepared for the way Yang perked up at that, beaming at her.

"I wish I wasn't," Qrow muttered. Weiss was pretty sure she caught Ozpin rolling his eyes.

"What even _is _that?" Ruby asked, frowning as she leaned forward to look.

"Signal scanner. _Ancient. _Broken as hell," Qrow said sourly, setting the gear-plate aside and gazing at the girls with dead, empty eyes. "But here we are messing with it, because apparently we're fu—"

Ozpin cleared his throat.

"Because apparently we're Bismuths now," Qrow censored himself, scowling.

"Hush," Ozpin scolded him gently. "You're being classist. A Pearl of all Gems should know better." Which set Qrow to grumbling again.

"_Whipped,"_ Yang whispered loudly.

"Any Gem can do any_thing _within their physical capabilities," Ozpin continued, as if he hadn't heard her. "As Yang will demonstrate by cooking dinner this evening."

Yang's smile vanished; Qrow's face, by contrast, brightened considerably. "But it's your turn!"

"Ten more hours," Qrow reminded her, sing-song. She groaned, dropping her forehead onto her crossed arms.

"Uh, I'm gonna show Weiss where to put her stuff and then I thought maybe we could hang out outside, if that's okay?" Ruby said quickly. "Not, y'know, wanting to push the grounding thing too much when you're already letting us have a sleepover…"

Weiss watched her gaze waver between Qrow and Ozpin, only briefly glancing at Yang. Well, she had said the feminine Gem was more like a sister to her than anything. Which made Qrow and Ozpin, what, second and third fathers? Highly eccentric uncles? Whatever they were, they had turned their heads in unsettlingly precise unison to make eye contact. Ozpin raised an eyebrow, and Qrow shrugged and shook his head a little as if confused, eliciting another smile from the perpetually-cheerful Garnet. It was Qrow who answered her question aloud.

"Knock yourself out, rosebud," which had Ruby flushing red as her namesake and Yang cackling in response.

"Okay-let's-go," Ruby babbled frantically, grabbing Weiss by the arm and all but towing her towards the stairs.

"Have fun, _rosebud!"_ Yang called after them, still laughing.

"Oh, come on, her dad calls her that all the time! What, am I not allowed anymore?" Weiss heard Qrow protest quietly beneath Yang's raised voice, followed by Ozpin's even quieter reply:

"Something tells me this has more to do with the audience than the speaker…"

"They're, uh," Ruby chuckled nervously as they climbed out of earshot, "they can be a bit…much…by organic standards. That's what my dad says, anyway; I'm used to it, so I don't really notice. Sorry if they were. You know. A bit much."

"It's fine," Weiss said, unsure if the apology was necessary or not. "I'm amazed they aren't 'a bit much' for each other. They're so…different."

"They're not human," Ruby said, shrugging. "I guess a lot of Gems have pretty 'out there' personalities, but if you're going to share your life with someone for thousands of years, you have to get used to that. Here's me."

She pointed through the open doorway at the end of the hall, leading Weiss into the small bedroom. It was surprisingly tidy, a few books scattered over the desk to the right of the door, some knickknacks on shelves above it, but the dresser drawers were neatly closed and the bed was made—apparently quite well, since the covers stayed more-or-less put when Ruby plopped herself down on top of them. Sunlight poured through an old-fashioned four-pane window between the bed and the desk; another window opposite that one would let in the morning light instead.

"Thousands of years?" Weiss echoed, letting her bag drop to the floor and sitting down gracefully in Ruby's desk chair, leaning her left shoulder against its back; she swept her hat off her head and smoothed her hand over her hair, just to check nothing had pulled loose from her ponytail.

"Gems live a long time."

"I know that! I just didn't realise that they—that _your_, uh…"

"My family," Ruby supplied.

"Fine. I didn't know they'd all been together that long. I mean, obviously I know they _met _back during the Gem War, but I didn't think…" Weiss trailed off, no longer sure exactly what it was she hadn't thought. Mostly because she didn't know what she _had _thought. Ruby spoke about her Gem family so casually it was easy to downplay the fantastical aspects and think of them as if they were brightly-coloured humans, even though Weiss knew better.

"It was my mom who brought them all together." Ruby rested a hand on the front of her hoodie, over the spot where Weiss had seen her Gemstone. "At first it was just her and Qrow and Ozpin. I guess they just kinda…travelled for awhile, before they met Yang. She's the youngest."

"I can tell," Weiss interjected dryly.

"Yeah…" Ruby laughed self-consciously, rubbing the back of her neck. "She's. She's Yang. Anyway, that was when all four of them finally settled down here."

"Except Ozpin," Weiss said. "Because he was up at Beacon, right?" Most of her research into Gems had led back to either Rose Quartz—who, interestingly, was never once referred to as Summer—or to Ozpin, a figure who recurred less prominently but more frequently throughout most of history. It was Summer's face in paintings and on statues, but Ozpin's name on permits and deeds and trade agreements, and the bylines of a small but significant body of monographs and academic articles on various Gem-related subjects. The difference between leadership and administration, Weiss supposed.

"Oh, that's how you knew to call him 'Professor'," Ruby realised, nodding. "Yeah. After the war ended most of Mom's Gems went to go find new homes, live their lives, and Mom wanted to do that too once she had Yang to sort of…take care of, I guess." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head briskly, continuing.

"I don't know whose idea it was, but that's when Ozpin took over command of the Gems that stuck with the Rebellion and converted most of Beacon into classrooms and training grounds for any organics who wanted to learn how to fight monsters. He still _lived _here, as far as I know, he just…wasn't home very much."

Weiss, ever the overachieving student, filed that information away, but her attention stumbled and seized on the start of Ruby's explanation. "Wait, how young _was _Yang?"

"Umm…younger than I am now, apparently."

"But that would mean she was born—"

"Formed."

"Fine, _formed, _after the war. I thought the Rebellion didn't have access to space travel!"

"They don't. Yang was formed on Remnant. So was Mom."

"But aren't Gems aliens?"

Ruby shrugged, looking uncertain. "Mostly. I think Ozpin and Qrow are, and…Torchwick basically said he was." She muttered the Zircon's name, shoulders sloping down as if embarrassed. "I kinda get the impression Dr. Oobleck and Ozpin knew each other before the war, so I bet Oobleck's from off-world too."

"Okay, so…strike _alien _from the list of things I thought I knew about Gems," Weiss groused. "Next you're going to tell me they aren't sentient rock people—"

Ruby bit her lip.

"Oh, come _on."_

The half-Gem looked faintly abashed, but mostly amused. "Sentient rock _or _mineral people, actually. Anything with a crystalline structure. Sorry."

Weiss sighed, a rather guttural sound of exasperation. "It's fine. I suppose, as much as it grates, I have to accept that this is the sort of thing you're going to know more about than I do." She paused. "For now. So, sentient _inorganic crystalline structures—"_

"Well, except for Pearls."

Weiss blinked at her in silence, mouth set in a line. "You just enjoy interrupting me, don't you."

"Little bit," Ruby admitted, covering her smile.

Wordlessly, Weiss shook her head. "Okay, I'll bite. Pearls. Hit me with it."

"Uh." All at once, Ruby looked uncertain. "I don't actually know much about Pearls specifically. I mean, Qrow's the only one I've met."

"But?" Weiss prompted with a touch of impatience; Ruby's voice had wobbled strangely as she'd finished speaking, and her gaze had darted off to one of the windows, as if there were something fascinating just outside.

"I don't know how Gems form, okay? I'm scared to ask because the last time I asked where new sentient beings came from I ended up getting scarred for life." Ruby shuddered, and Weiss found herself cringing in sympathy, remembering Winter's blunt, clinical version of the Talk. "So I don't know if Pearls form differently and that's why they're not like other Gems. But I get the feeling other Gems, like, the _other_ other Gems that Mom and everyone split away from, Homeworld Gems, don't treat Pearls super well."

"As in…"

Ruby looked even more uncomfortable as she went on. "A few days ago, Qrow took me and Yang on this mission. And he had to activate this Gem AI that I…don't think knows the war is over or that Qrow was one of the rebels. She talked about him having a _master."_

Weiss winced. "Oh…"

"Right?!" Ruby smacked her hands hard against the bed, once again looking at Weiss directly. "I knew there was something about Pearls that was supposed to make them different—Yang said something about them having 'attachment issues' or something once and I guess Qrow doesn't do so great if he's on his own for too long—but I didn't know it was some messed-up slave-race thing!"

"Did you talk to him about it?"

"Well…I kind of didn't really process what Jinn—that's the AI's name, Jinn—it didn't hit me why she said that to Qrow until later because there was a lot of running for our lives after that?" Ruby smiled awkwardly, giving a limp thumbs-up. "We survived, though! Three cheers for the Rose Rebellion…?"

"My sister's a fighter pilot and I'm pretty sure you're still in danger more often than she is," Weiss said, deadpan; after a while, there wasn't much to say when your best friend had a new story of death-defying adventure every time you talked to them.

"Life is danger! Surviving is thriving!" Ruby cried, then cleared her throat. "But no, I fell asleep before he got back from Beacon and he'd already left again before I woke up the next morning. Actually, he only got back today."

Weiss frowned. "Is that normal? I thought you said it wasn't good for him to be alone."

"Yeah, but if he _wants_ to go out alone, that's his call to make. It's not like he snaps and goes crazy or anything, he just gets kinda down." Ruby shrugged. "He gets restless sometimes and then he goes and does Important Qrow Things and then he comes back and gets used to being with people again and then he's fine. Yang and Ozpin didn't seem worried, and he's home now and acting pretty normal, so."

Home and firmly anchored there by a task that required him to sit still, focus, and rely on the company of others for diversion.

_Something tells me that's not a coincidence._

"But!" Ruby held up a finger. "We're getting off track. We need to have a planning session for what we're going to do tomorrow. Out back?"

"Actually," Weiss admitted, "I could use something to drink after that walk."

"Lemonade on the patio!" Ruby suggested.

"There's a patio?"

* * *

A very nice patio, as it happened, situated between the back door and the rest of the picturesque back yard. There wasn't a fence, just an irregular boundary of trees surrounding a much larger clearing than that which comprised the front lawn. There was a vegetable patch to one side of the patio, but someone had grown tall sunflowers with plate-sized blooms along the opposite side. Ruby caught Weiss looking over her shoulder at them—more specifically, at Zwei snuffling around them.

"Dad put all the plants in besides Mom's roses after they'd been dating for awhile. Most of 'em are perennials so they come back on their own, but Yang liked the sunflowers so much she plants new ones every year. We probably wouldn't have gardens at all except for Dad. The ones at his house are even nicer." Ruby made a face. "And bigger. So much _weeding…"_

Weiss took another sip of lemonade, swiping away the ring of condensation gathering on the glass table. "I'm guessing that's why there aren't more flowers back here?"

"Well, that and," Ruby gestured a short distance away, towards the centre of the large lawn and the round stone pavilion which stood there. Its surface was polished, but it seemed to absorb as much light as it reflected, giving it a strange, pearlescent glow under the afternoon sun.

"I was going to ask about that. It's a warp pad, right?" Weiss leaned across the table, squinting at it. She regretted leaving her hat inside; she hadn't realised how much easier it had been to see with it on, even if the brim clipped her peripheral vision a little.

"Yup. Apparently there's a safety thing about leaving a certain amount of room around them, I don't know."

"Makes sense. You wouldn't want to crowd a helipad, either."

"Oh! I know!"

Weiss turned back to Ruby, who wore the eager, delighted expression of one who's just been inspired. "Should I ask?"

"We should use the warp tomorrow! Think about it—we could go anywhere!"

"…Anywhere, huh." Weiss considered that, excitement rising despite herself. With the funds at her disposal, she could technically already go 'anywhere'—as long as she asked her father's permission and was willing to endure the travel time. But a warp?

That was a whole new set of possibilities.

"I mean, we'd have to take it to Beacon first…"

"I've never been to Beacon," Weiss said quickly. No organic had been to Beacon in two hundred years—except Ruby and maybe, Weiss supposed, Taiyang. Only Gems could operate the warps, and warping was the only way in.

Ruby beamed. "Then I could show you around campus to start with! Ooh, I wish we could go now." She shifted anxiously in her seat, fidgeting. "The staying home thing wasn't too bad at first, and the extra work isn't really that big a deal, but I—_whoa!"_

"Zwei!" Weiss called out, alarmed; the corgi had suddenly shot off the patio, racing past Ruby, darting nimbly across the vegetable patch and dashing into the trees. Weiss got up immediately and took off after him, Ruby right beside her.

"That was crazy graceful!" Ruby exclaimed. "He ninja'd right through the tomatoes, did you see that!?"

"He's so fast!"

"Zwei!" Ruby yelled. "Wait up! He's never done this before. No, wait!"

She grabbed Weiss's arm, tugging her off to the left as she was about to forge on between a pair of birches. The world blurred briefly, and when Ruby let go they were running down a grassy path between two distinct lines of trees. She could glimpse flashes of Ruby's house off to her right.

"It cuts in further up the yard!" Ruby explained, panting a little now, her jagged breaths awkwardly syncopated against the steady rhythm of their shoes against the ground. Well, mostly steady.

_I knew I should have worn the wedges!_ Weiss cursed herself, yanking her heel free of the dirt with savage force. "Go on ahead! I'll catch up!"

"No; I think I know where—where he was going! He's heading for a dead end!"

Weiss would have asked what she meant, but just then they cleared the trees and she saw for herself. Grass and wildflowers swept smoothly up a series of gentle inclines before cutting off in an artificial horizon. Zwei sat right on that line, his back to them, and Weiss's steps slowed. In the distance on her left was another rise which mantled higher than this little hill; to her right, she could now see a little way into Ruby's front yard through the trees.

Ruby led the way up the slope, and as they climbed Weiss realised they weren't on a hill at all; this was a cliff, jagged and sheer, and so was the rise on the left. They were both different promontories jutting out from a broad, elevated curve that cradled the valley far below, an unbroken stretch of deep forest that vanished into fog tinted golden by the sun.

"He's _got_ to have some connection to Mom," Ruby said quietly as they came to a stop just behind Zwei, looking out over the valley. "This was her favourite spot. It's why she picked this place to settle down."

"It's beautiful," Weiss murmured. Ruby nodded, touching the front of her hoodie again.

"I come out here and talk to her sometimes." She laughed—nervously, but there was a hollowness to it which nervousness couldn't explain. "Is that weird?"

"Mother used to take Winter and me to visit our grandfather's grave," Weiss said, unsure of her footing in a different way now. "But sometimes I used to find her in his old study. Looking through his books, things like that."

Or just sitting, after that terrible birthday Weiss tried not to think about; sitting, and crying, or worse just listlessly staring, a wine glass tipping and pitching in her grip as the stem wobbled between her clumsy fingers. She shook the memories away. "I think it's where she feels closest to him."

"Yeah…that's kind of it. But she's right here, too." Ruby tapped her chest, and Weiss thought she had tried to laugh again. It didn't much sound like it. "Close to my heart. This Gem held everything she was."

Her voice went very quiet.

"If you think about it…_I'm_ my mom's grave."

Without thinking, Weiss caught Ruby's hand, pulling it away. "Hey! That's just—that's the part of you your mother gave you, like your father's genes. It's still you! It's like—like saying _we're_ all carrying pieces of Grandfather around just because we inherited his hair!"

She flicked her ponytail for emphasis, and a weak giggle worked its way out of Ruby. Oh, that probably had looked pretty ridiculous, hadn't it?

_I'm still holding her hand!_

Weiss dropped it immediately, going red with mortification. "A-anyway!" She looked away, tossing her hair. "It's _your_ Gemstone. Your weapon's different, right? You don't have her memories, or her history, or any of that. It's your Gemstone, and _you_ aren't _her."_

"Thanks, Weiss," Ruby said softly; Weiss dared to look back at her and found the girl was tentatively smiling. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get so…_bleh._ I wanted to bring you here sometime, I just wasn't planning on it being _right now_ and…it's been kind of a weird month."

"You don't say," Weiss said dryly.

The smile broadened into a more cheerful, familiar expression. "Aw, c'mon, you know you love us."

"There is exactly one being on this property I'm willing to confess love to." Weiss crouched, patting her knees. "Zwei! Come here, Zwei!"

Ruby looked like she wanted to object, but closed her mouth, nodding slowly. "Yeah, okay, I can't really argue that."

Hearing his name, Zwei's ears had perked up and he was watching them over his shoulder, tongue lolling out.

"Come on. You wanna go back to the patio? Patio?" Weiss repeated.

"C'mon, Zwei," Ruby cajoled. "Don't make me carry you! Let's go home."

Zwei's ears twitched again. He barked once, the sharp sound seeming to echo and _stretch, _hanging tremulously in the air.

Ruby and Weiss looked at each other for the split-second of confusion they were afforded before the ground disappeared from beneath them.

* * *

_**A/N: OKAY, so this? This was supposed to be like. Half of Chapter 7. And then Ruby and Weiss figuring out what had happened and getting home would have been the second half. Except the second "half" just keeps going and is looking like it's gonna end up being AT LEAST half again as long as what's above, and the whole thing was getting ridiculously bloated. Not just long, mind you. It simply didn't flow well after a certain point. Fortunately, this realisation hit in the midst of trying and failing to bring the falling action to a close, so the thing that is now Chapter 8 is actually almost finished. Emphasis on "almost", not "finished"; expect it soon, but not, like, tomorrow-soon.**_

_**So, you know, anyone who feels like leaving a review: great, I love feedback! And if you feel there's not really anything to review, that's totally understandable. This was just the ideal point to split the chapters. Hopefully I'll see you all again at Chapter 8! Or, uh. I guess I'll see the hit counter go up again at Chapter 8? ...Idiom is weird and I should stop talking now. Thanks for reading!**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: And lo, the second part arriveth. Nothing else really to say that wasn't said all of three days ago, so I invite you to read on and enjoy Chapter 8, AKA "Chapter 7 but the plot actually resolves"!**_

* * *

**Wonderland**

Everything was dark as pitch until a spark of red lit in the air. It flickered, like a lighter failing to strike. Then it exploded with a clap of thunder, an outer ring of light pushing out and bounding a field of churning energy which ejected two screaming girls at speed. Weiss frantically reached out to Ruby, who grabbed her hand in one of her own, directing the other palm-down towards the floor. A bubble began to form rapidly around them, but not as quickly as Weiss knew it could—instead, light seemed to be gathering at its base.

It struck the floor, then Weiss and Ruby struck it, bouncing gently.

"You made a cushion," Weiss realised, freeing her hand and pressing her palms against the bottom of the bowl of light.

"Uh-huh! I've been practicing. After the bird-monster thing Ozpin said I should work on my," her face screwed up in confusion, hooking her fingers into air-quotes, "'landing strategy'? So I tried to come up with something good for long falls. Never tried it on anything higher than a trampoline jump before now, though…"

"Well, I think we can call this a success," Weiss said rather dubiously, looking around. There wasn't much she could make out in the soft glow from Ruby's half-bubble—they were surrounded by stone of some kind, and the ceiling was shrouded in darkness. "Looks like we fell pretty far…and whatever we fell _through_ is gone." She sighed. "Because of course it is."

"Weiss? This is gonna sound crazy, but, did Zwei…open a portal and drop us into a creepy basement somewhere?"

Basement? That would explain why there were no windows, but… "It could be a cave of some kind, too," Weiss reasoned. "If we're deep enough, there wouldn't be any moving air, right?"

"Nah. I mean, yeah, but it's not a cave." Ruby's voice sounded a little muffled, and Weiss looked over her shoulder to see the other girl had her cheek smushed against the base of the bowl, peering directly down through it. "The floor's way too smooth and shiny."

"I'll take your word for it." Weiss stood gingerly, wobbling a little on the light-cushion. "That still leaves us with your dog having_ yet another_ leg up on the laws of physics…"

Ruby snickered, rocking back onto her knees. The bowl wobbled like jello.

"Ruby," Weiss warned, narrowing her eyes.

"It's funny 'cuz he's a boy dog."

"Ugh!" Weiss smacked a palm over her face. "You're such a _child _sometimes. Focus! We need to find a way out of here and back to Patch."

"You don't think we're on Patch anymore?"

"You're the one who lives there." Weiss gestured around the space. "Does this look like Patch to you? Give me your scroll. I left mine on the table."

Ruby pulled her scroll out and tossed it over; Weiss snatched it out of the air, preparing to berate the other girl for carelessness, but as she felt the wobble under her feet caused by her shifting weight, the nascent lecture fizzled out. _Guess there's really no reason to worry about dropping it…_

There was no signal, of course, but all she really wanted was to turn on the flashlight, the intensity of the Hard Light Dust ratcheting up to a bright white point that illuminated a small puddle of light around her. Then she yelped as the half-bubble popped and vanished, abruptly dropping her about a foot to the floor. She stumbled forward as her shoes hit the ground and lost her balance, her knees striking the stone painfully. "Ow…!"

"_Oh _my gosh Weiss, are you okay? I'm so sorry," Ruby babbled, rushing over to her and crouching down. "I should have warned you. I forgot about centre of gravity. Is anything hurt?"

"_Everything _hurts," Weiss said through gritted teeth, accepting Ruby's hand and letting herself be helped upright. Seeing the mortified look on the hybrid's face, Weiss relented. "Nothing's broken or anything. Just be more careful, okay? Think it through next time."

She raised Ruby's scroll high, looking around. "…Okay, I still can't see the walls, either. How big _is _this place?"

Ruby took a deep breath and cupped her hands around her mouth. _"Hello!?"_

The sound pushed flat through the air, neither resounding nor rebounding but dissipating into silence.

"No echo," Ruby observed, exchanging troubled looks with Weiss. "So…it's either a really small room that we just can't see for some reason…"

"…Or it's so big that the walls and ceiling are too far away for the sound to carry. So are we crossing our fingers for 'dark void' or 'infinite tomb'?"

"I don't like either of those options," Ruby said, small-voiced. "I wish it were even a little brighter in here. I just wanna be able to see—"

And then it was, and they could, silent and instant as a light-switch being flipped.

"—where…we…are?"

Weiss's lips parted, looking around in disbelief and awe; her thumb moved automatically, switching off the now-superfluous flashlight. The ceiling was a _sky, _peachy-pink like a sunrise but neither sun nor moon were visible, and the stars were only faint pinpricks that formed no constellations she could name_. _And the walls, well, no wonder they hadn't been able to see them. There weren't any. Just red roses on creeping vines covering the ground all the way to the horizon.

Ruby walked to the edge of the large, round stone plinth on which they stood, now revealed to be a warm pink marble. She crouched and ran her fingers over the petals of one of the roses. Then, hesitantly, she touched her fingertip to a thorn. She hissed and drew her hand back sharply.

"Ruby?"

"They're real," she said, standing and extending her hand towards Weiss; a round drop of blood beaded on her fingertip, its tense surface quivering. "Or they feel real. But they don't smell like anything."

"You're right." Weiss hadn't noticed at first, but no matter how many deep breaths she drew in, there was nothing, neither perfume nor the raw, green smell of healthy vegetation. Not even the inevitable scent of decay. "I can't smell anything at all. Shouldn't there be, I don't know, dirt or something?"

"I couldn't see what the roses were growing in. There's too many briars in the way, and they're all thorny. Oh, wait!"

Ruby went back over to the edge of the platform, digging around in her pocket. She retrieved the cookie bag with a triumphant "Aha!" and turned it inside out over her hand, wiggling her hidden fingers at Weiss with a creaking, rustling noise.

"Behold!"

"My knight in shining armour," Weiss droned. "What exactly do you think you're going to do with that?"

Ruby grinned and thrust her hand into the roses, pawing through them and staring intently.

"Okay," she said after a moment, "haven't struck dirt yet, but it looks like the stone keeps going. Maybe there's a path here!"

"Uh, Ruby?" Weiss stared as the roses parted in a line from the spot where Ruby was working, drawing away from a cobblestone path of irregular marble slabs that led out from the platform on which they stood.

"What?"

Weiss pointed wordlessly. She heard Ruby gasp when she turned to look.

"We didn't just…not see that, right?" she asked.

"It _definitely _wasn't there before," Weiss insisted. Ruby went to pull her hand out of the roses, and Weiss heard a yelp as she succeeded.

"Dang it! The bag got stuck on the thorns. I can't get it out." She shook her hand ruefully, rubbing at the new scratches on her wrist.

"Leave it. Littering's the least of our problems right now."

Ruby gave a few more tugs to the bag, but it was caught fast. She looked quite disgruntled when she finally gave up and stood, something between a pout and a scowl on her face as Weiss came to stand beside her, eyeing the path warily.

"The roses just _moved," _Weiss murmured, pressing a hand to her temple and rubbing slowly. "That should _not _be possible. …What now?" she asked in a sigh as Ruby fidgeted.

"Mom's roses at home used to try to creep through the windows whenever I was near the front of the house," Ruby confessed in a rush, going pink. "And the door. And the chimney."

_Smack _went Weiss's face into her hands.

"They don't do it anymore," Ruby hastened to add. "We talked it out."

"Why?" Weiss asked, muffled.

"Because it was too early in the season to prune—oh, you meant the roses. Uh, so plants get kinda weird around certain kinds of Gems sometimes? They aren't _intelligent, _but they're _smart, _if that makes any sense. We think they were looking for Mom and, y'know." Ruby laughed awkwardly. "Next best thing."

Weiss lowered her hands, narrowing her eyes consideringly at the roses. Ruby voiced her thoughts a beat later.

"If Zwei sent us here, and he's connected to Mom, and these roses are acting like _Mom's _roses, do you think…?"

"Maybe they _are _your mom's roses. Or something that looks like roses, anyway," Weiss added. The ones back on Patch had certainly _seemed _like normal plants. These roses had been strange even before they'd started moving on their own. "Does that mean we're safe here?"

"I don't know," Ruby admitted, looking down. "Gem places aren't always friendly to organics."

"Oh. Great."

Perturbed, they observed the path in silence. Weiss was half-expecting it to vanish as suddenly as it had appeared, or for the plinth on which they stood to start dissolving into nothing to force them forward. But as the seconds ticked by, nothing happened, until at last Ruby spoke up again.

"I think we should follow it."

"Follow the mysteriously-appearing path through the supernatural rose garden your magical dog teleported us into." Weiss crossed her arms. "Don't you think it's just a little too convenient? Something's trying to lead us somewhere. What if it's a trap?"

"We're already trapped," Ruby pointed out, looking unusually serious. "We don't know where we are, or how far home is, and we can't call anyone or use the sky to navigate. I don't even think that's the real sky! The colour's too solid to just be a time-of-day thing. Our only landmarks are this…patio thing and that path. So I say we go the only way we can. What do we have to lose?"

Weiss scanned the area, searching for something, _anything _else to go on. But it was just them, the path, and the sea of sharp-thorned, scentless roses.

"Okay," she said reluctantly. "Oh! Here." She handed Ruby's scroll back, watching as the other girl tucked it away in her hoodie's kangaroo pocket.

"If it makes you feel better," Ruby offered as they set off down the path, "I'm technically always armed now. So even if we get in trouble, I can protect us."

Weiss rubbed her arms uncomfortably, not cold but feeling something similar. "I can take care of myself."

"I know! But if there's monsters or anything, I can fight them." She gave Weiss a bright, encouraging smile. "We'll be okay. I promise."

"I'm still older than you," Weiss grumbled, flushing. "And it's not like I don't know how to throw a punch, at least."

"So we'll be extra okay! Ruby Rose Quartz and Weiss Schnee: Junior Huntresses!" She passed a hand through the air as if envisioning a movie's title card, smirking at Weiss.

Weiss sighed. "Don't patronise me."

Weiss's heels clicked sharply against the stone, Ruby's rubber soles making a quieter, muffled slapping sound as she walked.

"You said it yourself," Ruby began tentatively. "There's some things I know more about. Like weird Gem stuff. And fighting."

"I know." Weiss bit the inside of her cheek. "I just don't like being unprepared."

"Or relying on people," Ruby guessed, and then winced when she saw Weiss's face. "That's a _don't say it out loud _thing, got it."

"It's not a 'thing'," Weiss said sharply, crossing her arms tighter against the churning in her stomach.

"Okay. Sorry."

They walked a few steps in silence. Then, abruptly, Weiss asked "How far do you think this path goes?"

"I don't know—it's kind of hard to see. …No," Ruby corrected herself, shaking her head, "I can _see, _but I can't _look. _I can't focus on anything too far in front of us for some reason."

"Yeah." Weiss frowned as that clicked into place; she knew exactly what Ruby meant, the way her eyes just didn't seem to be telling her brain the whole story. "You're right. I…guess we just have to keep walking, then." _However long that takes._ And then came the thought she'd been trying to suppress for a while now: _What if we never get out?_

Ruby clearly shared her unease, though she seemed to be trying to hide it. "W-well, maybe we're almost there. We can't see the end, but we can't really see the path either, right? Maybe this is the home stretch, and we're about to—"

"—end up right back where we started!" Weiss groaned, as they found themselves stepping off the path and onto a round plaque of marble. "You've _got _to be _kidding _me!"

"No, wait! Look, if this is the same path and the same platform, the cookie bag should be right there. But I don't see it anywhere."

Sure enough, there wasn't the slightest glint of foil, or a flash of colour that wasn't blood red, deep green, or soft pink. And as Weiss looked closer, she realised the plinth was different as well.

"There's something carved in the surface here."

"Huh?" Ruby frowned, stepping towards the centre. Weiss followed her, trying to discern the pattern, but Ruby beat her to it. _"Oh._ We were right!"

"About what?"

"This place is connected to Mom. It's hard to see from ground-level, but…" She pointed, and Weiss followed her finger as it traced the lines. "Those crinkly lines all folded in on each other, those should make a rose shape from overhead. It's Mom's emblem. Well, Rose Quartz's emblem, anyway; I'm going to use it, too, when I become a Huntress. And that's a gear, inside _another _gear—Ozpin's emblem—and the outer gear fits offset inside the negative space of a third gear in the broad part of a wing-shape, and that's Qrow's. See?"

Weiss tried to get the image to resolve in her mind's eye, but it was hard to picture. She shook her head. "Whose is that? Down at the bottom, I guess, if the wing's supposed to curve up."

"There isn't anything at…" Ruby blinked, looking where Weiss was pointing. "That's not part of the symbol."

"It's carved the same way. It really looks like it's supposed to be there."

"But it shouldn't be," Ruby insisted. "Everywhere I've seen this symbol, it's been exactly the same: Mom, Ozpin, and Qrow's emblems made to fit together_._ Why would it be different here?"

Weiss walked away from Ruby, tilting her head as she examined the odd shape. "What's the symbol supposed to represent? Family?"

"The Rose Rebellion. Its leader and her two closest advisors…Mom and her best friends."

"The history books don't say much about the Rebellion," Weiss said, kneeling down gingerly by the fourth emblem. "Just that Rose Quartz and her Gems won the war. Are you _sure _it was only the three of them at the top? Or were they just the ones who survived?"

Once again, Weiss saw Ruby press her hand to the spot over her Gemstone, looking pensive.

"Can you tell what it is?" she asked, coming to join Weiss.

"Peaks, different shapes, going up to a point and back down again. See, they're attached to this curve here."

"No, it's an oval. Look." Ruby pointed out the lower curve, and the answer struck Weiss all at once.

"It's a crown."

Ruby took a few steps back, squinting. "I think you're right. Why would a crown be _below _everything else?"

"Well, Qrow's wing makes the top of the shape asymmetrical. There's nowhere for the crown to sit. This way, the whole symbol is sort of inside the crown. You see this kind of thing in medieval heraldry sometimes," Weiss explained, running her hand over the shape. She drew it back hastily, gasping, when the crown glowed white in response. The light dimmed swiftly once she was no longer touching the symbol.

"Whoa," Ruby breathed, kneeling beside her. She did what Weiss had done, but she kept her hand on the shape, trailing her fingers through the light. As she did so, Weiss noticed something.

"Hang on. Try moving your hand as far as possible without lifting it."

Ruby looked puzzled, but complied, and Weiss watched in fascination as the edge of the glowing shape drew away from the lines etched in the stone. The carved crown was exactly where it had always been, but a second crown of light was following Ruby's hand, like she'd clicked and dragged it with a computer cursor. Ruby lifted her hand, and once again the glow faded. When she touched the stone again, the glow reappeared within the bounds of the crown's carving.

"Do you think it works on the other parts?" Ruby wondered aloud, looking at Weiss.

As one, they got to their feet, going around either side of the crown and moving to bracket the heart of the crest. Ruby stepped in, but neither Qrow's wing nor Ozpin's gears reacted. When she reached the centre, she knelt down—and the rose lit up white.

"Physical contact," Weiss said immediately. "It's not about pressure—we have to be in direct contact with the stone."

"Like a touchscreen!" Ruby scooted off the rose and waited for the light to die out, pressing her palms against the carving. "It moves like the crown does," she reported. Rather unnecessarily, since Weiss could see for herself. "Oh! That's weird."

The glowing rose struck the inner boundary of the first gear and stopped. No matter how Ruby hauled on it, it wouldn't go past that line.

"So we can move parts of the symbol, but we can't take them out of alignment with each other," Weiss mused. "But what can we do with…"

Her eyes landed on the gears. So did Ruby's.

"Clockwork," they said in unison.

"It's got to be the outer gear," Ruby decided, nodding.

"Right. We should be able to get it to run along the inside of the ring, as long as we keep the teeth together." Weiss paused. "You know there's no reason to think this'll actually do anything useful, right?"

"Unless you use video game logic." Ruby spread her arms in a shrug as Weiss raised an eyebrow at her. "What? This place obviously doesn't work like the real world. Why _wouldn't _we need to solve a weird puzzle on the floor to progress?"

"So you really think we're in some kind of alternate dimension? We can't just," Weiss gestured at the roses, "pick a direction and start running?"

"Through the super-sharp thorns that keep going as far as we can see?"

Weiss looked down at her exposed, sandal-clad feet.

"Can't you do the…_whoosh _thing and go over them?" she suggested, wrinkling her nose at how vague that sounded.

Ruby blinked, then blushed. "I didn't think about that," she admitted.

"Well?" Weiss prompted impatiently.

Ruby hopped up and looked around for a moment, settling on a point in the distance. Her eyes narrowed and she sprang forward, her body shimmering and vanishing into a drift of red petals that streaked off the plinth towards the horizon. A few yards out, Weiss saw the blur pull a sharp U-turn, speeding back towards her. Hardly had Ruby reached the platform than she rematerialized, falling onto her hands and knees and gasping.

"Ruby!"

She fell onto her side as Weiss rushed towards her. Cold terror clenched at Weiss's chest as she dropped to her knees beside Ruby, but the other girl was still breathing; deep, noisy breaths that shook her whole body.

"Ruby, are you okay? What's wrong? What do I need to do?" Weiss's hands hovered uncertainly over Ruby's form. The girl shook her head weakly.

"S'okay," she wheezed. "Not hurt."

Weiss rocked back on her heels, willing her heart to slow, trying to get her own breathing under control. "What happened?" she demanded, swallowing back her fear and the stomach-flipping sensation of absolute _relief_.

"No air." Gradually, Ruby's breathing evened out; she heaved a deep sigh, the bellows-like sound of her straining lungs quieting into normal respiration. "There's no air off the path," she elaborated. "I didn't notice until I was almost too far out to make it back." She grimaced. _"Definitely _not normal roses…"

Weiss brushed away the sweat that had gathered on her forehead, swiping irritably at the moisture beading at the corners of her eyes. Some sweat must have dripped in, irritating them. "Well, that's just _great."_ If Ruby couldn't make it that far on her own, she'd never be able to carry Weiss as well—which, as embarrassing as it was, had clearly been the only way they'd both make it out of here.

"So I guess that's another point in the—_oof_—the 'weird alternate dimension' column," Ruby mused, scooting awkwardly until she was sitting up. "I mean, maybe the sky could be behind a force-field…but the stars are still wrong, and that doesn't really explain why there's air over the stones and nowhere else."

"And now we can't know for sure how much air there even _is,"_ Weiss said grimly.

Ruby shuddered. "You know, suffocating was never at the top of the list of ways I wanted to die, but it's even lower now. So maybe we could just pump the brakes on that train of thought."

Part of Weiss wanted to ask if Ruby had an actual, physical list, but the rest of her had grown a little wiser in the time since they'd met.

"Okay," she sighed, getting up and holding a hand out to Ruby, who accepted her help standing. "I guess we're solving a puzzle."

They knelt between the lines of Qrow's wing emblem, right beside the outer edge of the larger gear. "Ready?" Ruby asked.

"Ready." They each placed their hands on the gear, which began to glow. "Three…two…one…go!"

They hauled on it as hard as it can, and the gear ran along several teeth before their hands left it.

"It's working!" Ruby exclaimed as it kept going.

But before it had even gone a quarter of the way around, the light faded, and Weiss's heart sank.

"Or not." She blew air between her lips, crossing her arms. "Okay. Maybe if you try waiting further along the track?"

"So I can catch it before it fades and set it going again!" Ruby brightened. "Let's try it!"

They did, and Weiss felt a flare of triumph as Ruby's hands slammed down on the glowing shape just as it started to dim, sending it an additional quarter-turn. She realised suddenly the flaw in their plan.

"Ruby!" she called, pointing at the gear as it started fading again.

"Got it!" Ruby burst into petals, regaining her form almost on top of the gear and shoving it again, breathing new life into it. Weiss yanked her sandals off one foot at a time and started running, the straps hooked over the fingers of one hand.

"Ha!" she shouted triumphantly as she slapped a hand down on the dimming gear, flinging it onward towards Ruby, who had cut across to the point where Weiss had been.

They dashed breathlessly around the shape, catching the gear and sending it spinning down its track, never letting the light go out. By the third revolution, Weiss's enthusiasm had begun to flag; by the fifth, it was thoroughly gone. She let out a short scream of frustration as she slammed her bare foot down on the gear after revolution number eight, stopping it dead. Ruby didn't object, stumbling to a halt and doubling over with her hands on her knees, panting.

"_What are we doing wrong!?"_ Weiss shrieked up at the sky. Her chest heaved with exertion and the hot, crushing anger pulsing through her pounding heart, her sore feet, her clenched fists. "Is it not going _fast enough?_ Is it the _dimming?"_

"Oh…oh my _gods."_

Ruby, still bent over, was staring towards the centre of the symbol, wearing an expression of mingled disbelief and disgust.

"We're _idiots," _she groaned.

"Speak for yourself," Weiss snapped, turning to look. The glowing shape of a second, smaller gear overlapped the carving of the rose emblem. "What…?"

"It's all one shape," Ruby said, straightening up. "Ozpin's emblem: one gear centred _perfectly _inside another. If one gear moves alone, it's not the same shape anymore. So the inner gear moves when we move the outer gear."

"Which means outer gear should move with the inner gear. And since it's smaller, it'll be easier to start it moving and keep it moving." Weiss squeezed her eyes shut. "Faster, and without the dimming problem."

Ruby surveyed the symbol critically for a moment, then walked forward, sitting down inside the carved inner gear. "Okay…Weiss? Could you come sit back-to-back with me? Or maybe a little further so we can both reach, but face the other way, okay? And put your sandals back on."

They ended up sitting with most of the rose carving between them, carefully positioned so that they weren't in direct contact with any part of the stone plinth.

"It's like one of those spinny-cup rides, but backwards!" Ruby explained. "When you can reach the gear, spin it clockwise, and I'll push it when I can reach it. Make sure you don't press it hard enough to slow it down."

"Are you sure it needs to go clockwise?"

"No, but it makes sense, right? Clockwork, clockwise. Anyway, you never thought of making it go the other way, either!"

Weiss flushed in embarrassment, grateful that Ruby couldn't see her face. "W-well, of course not! You just said it yourself. It wouldn't make sense to turn it counter-clockwise!"

"Mmhm." She could _hear _Ruby smirking, and her face grew hotter. "Okay, I'm going to start it. Here we go!"

Weiss heard Ruby's palms swipe over the stone. A few seconds later, she saw the glowing gear moving towards her and brushed her own hands over it lightly. It slowed only slightly under her touch. She could see the outer gear chugging along as well, moving in a smooth arc that mimicked the motion of the inner gear, carried further by a single push than they'd been able to manage before.

_This might actually work!_

Around and around the gear went, picking up speed in a way the outer gear hadn't. Soon Weiss was struggling to catch it before momentum carried it right past, moving her whole upper body along a semicircle in perfect counterpoint to Ruby. The light from the gears grew brighter, a strange wind picking up as if the flat shapes had mass, building into a whirlwind. The glow spread between the gears, meeting in the middle with a brilliant flare and Weiss could no longer see the gear she was supposed to be moving, pulling her hands back as the light danced around them.

When the rose beneath her began to glow, she scrambled to her feet, as did Ruby. Her ponytail whipped off to the left like a flag snapping taut in the wind.

"Did you—?"

"No," Ruby shouted, grinning. "I think we did it!"

The gears were slowing now, but the light only intensified. Weiss felt a rumbling beneath her as the glowing shapes locked into place over their carved forms and halted. Slowly, the wing emblem broke free of the symbol and lifted, curved and indented walls rising smoothly from the surface of the plinth to encircle Weiss and Ruby in the track they'd pushed the gears along.

"I think we made it worse," Weiss reflected when the rumbling stopped, leaving them standing in a ring of high stone walls with no visible means of exit.

"Hey! The rose is still glowing." The light had faded from the rest of the floor, the gears once more appearing to be simple carvings, but the rose still shone with brilliant white light. Ruby frowned, then bent down and pressed her hand to it before Weiss could object.

The light flared and went out, motes dancing before Weiss's eyes as Ruby straightened up again. "Now what did that do…?"

"The walls," Weiss said immediately, reaching out. She stopped herself before she quite came into contact with the thin tracery of glowing white lines and symbols that had appeared. Squinting, she inspected them more closely. "It looks like some kind of writing."

"It could be. I mean, if the Gems have their own language, they must have their own way of writing it, too."

"It's scrolling down the walls…"

"Ooh, Weiss!" Ruby tapped her shoulder, causing her to turn around. The half-Gem pointed directly across the enclosure, to the spot where the ring would began to taper into a wing shape if looked at from above. "What do those lines look like to you?"

Slowly, Weiss smiled. "The outline of a door."

Ruby led the way, pressing her hand to an abstract rune at the heart of the outlined, rounded rectangle. The light around it brightened, and the slab of stone sank into the ground, revealing the entry to a second, smaller chamber filled with a peculiar indirect light.

"Whoa…" Ruby stepped right in, and Weiss wasted no time in following. Which was fortunate, considering as soon as they were inside, the door rose back into place much faster than it had lowered; the girls wheeled around, startled.

"At least it isn't dark?" Ruby ventured.

"Please tell me we don't have to solve another puzzle to get out."

"Don't be silly. This is clearly a miniboss room." Ruby nodded confidently, looking around. "Once we get our new item we'll be able to find the way out."

Weiss raised a sceptical eyebrow. "More 'video game logic'?"

"It hasn't failed us yet!"

Weiss shook her head, letting her gaze travel over the room and its contents. "What _is_ all this stuff, anyway?"

The room was a far cry from the austerity of the rest of the…_pocket dimension,_ as much as Weiss hated to think of it like that. It was packed floor to ceiling with, well, stuff. Rolled-up rugs, stacks of books, any number of boxes—a mind-boggling jumble of cardboard, carved wood, weathered treasure chests and plastic tubs—there was a broken chair, beautifully-upholstered, which had an array of gowns in different colours and historical styles draped over it, an assortment of shoes laying haphazardly beneath it.

"I, uh." Ruby cleared her throat. When she spoke again, her voice was edged in laughter. "I think we just found Mom's junk room."

A junk room.

Ruby was looking at her, lips pressed tightly together, incriminating _snerk _sounds escaping her.

A _junk room._

Weiss felt her eye begin to twitch. A snicker pushed past Ruby's lips.

"Are you _serious?"_ Weiss seethed; Ruby, meanwhile, burst out laughing. "Who hides a junk room behind a hidden door under a magical puzzle inside an alternate dimension that can only be opened _by a dog?_ Who thinks something like that is a good idea!? Why would you do that? Why would _anyone _do that!?"

"I have no idea_," _Ruby gasped, wiping away tears of mirth. "She had two houses and a fortress she could have used instead! This is _awesome."_

"I can't—I mean, come _on,_ what…?" Weiss threw up her hands. "Well, I guess we better start looking for secret passageways and trapdoors! Maybe a one-way mirror? Some hidden cameras?"

Still chuckling to herself, Ruby had begun picking her way through Summer's belongings, heading for the back of the room. "Come on, maybe there's something further in."

"Oh, yeah, maybe we'll find her record collection." Weiss snorted, bracing herself on the chair as she placed her feet delicately around all the trip hazards.

"Ooh, if we do, we're taking it home with us. No way three people who were around for the phonograph don't have a record player between them."

"I was being _sarcastic,_ Ruby."

"I know, but now I'm kinda hoping for it. I bet she was a jazz person."

"Based on what, exactly?"

"Intuition," Ruby said blithely. _"Oh."_ She stopped. "Oh, Weiss, look at that."

Weiss stepped gingerly around a crate of…_gold-edged china, _seriously, why would a Gem own an expensive set of dishes?—and squeezed herself in beside Ruby, who was staring down through the top of a display case surrounded by several feet of blessed empty space.

"Oh," she breathed, resting a hand reverently on the glass. "Oh that is _beautiful."_

It was a sword—a rapier, at least from its profile, but the slender blade wasn't flat. Its cross section was square like a fencing foil. This sword clearly wasn't meant for sport, though. The blade tapered to a wicked-sharp point, but thickened to almost the diameter of the handle at the ricasso. At first she thought it was basket-hilted, but no; the four delicate-looking prongs that curved down over the handle wouldn't completely shield the wielder's hand. The sword gleamed a brilliant silver beneath the glass. Weiss's fingers itched to touch it.

"Is it a sword or a gun?" Ruby wondered. _"Ooh, _or is it a sword _and _a gun?"

"What about this says 'gun' to you?" Weiss asked incredulously.

"There, between the blade and the hilt. Doesn't that look like a revolver cylinder? And those parts sticking out on the handle—hammer," she pointed to the upper protrusion, then the lower, "trigger. See?"

Weiss hesitated. Ruby was trained to handle weapons, right? And Weiss knew her way around a sword, even if they were usually blunted. "We could always take a closer look."

Ruby grinned. "I was really hoping you were gonna say that."

The case wasn't locked—that would be pretty superfluous after all the hoops they'd had to jump through just to get in the room—and soon enough Ruby had the weapon in her hands. She held it carefully by the hilt with the blade resting delicately on her open palm, raising it to her eye level and inspecting it closely.

"Yup," she reported. "There's a latch on the thing that looks like a cylinder." Ruby pointed the blade at the ground, away from Weiss, and thumbed the latch; the blade pitched forward, exposing the inside of the cylinder. _"Oh_-ho-ho! It's a break-top. And it looks like it takes Dust."

She flicked her wrist, the blade snapping back into place with a soft _click _that still made Weiss jump. "Careful!"

"Don't worry, it's unloaded," Ruby assured her. "And I meant it—it takes Dust, not Dust _rounds._ There isn't a barrel, either. It might be built like a revolver, but it's not actually a gun. I'm not even sure what the Dust is supposed to do. You wanna see it?"

Weiss took the sword carefully as Ruby offered it to her hilt-first. Now that she held it, it reminded her more of an epée than a foil, heavier and with a blade that wouldn't bend so easily—or at all, as she discovered when she applied pressure to one of the flat sides. The grip was a little bigger around than a fencing sword's, but not by much, and the pommel was slender and tapered in the same way.

Stepping back from Ruby, she tried manipulating the handle with her thumb and forefinger; it was a little unwieldy due to the weapon's increased heft, but the tip followed her direction with precision once she'd adjusted enough to keep the wobbling to a minimum. It was well-balanced, even with the built-in cylinder. Setting her feet at a right angle, knees bent, Weiss tried a few passes, extending from the elbow and then in a longer thrust from the shoulder, rotating her wrist so the blade's point moved in small, lazy circles, learning the way its weight dragged. Her lips curved into a smile as she batted an imaginary foil to the side and stepped in for a finishing lunge.

She nearly dropped the sword when a sharp, insistent flurry of barking exploded behind the door.

"Zwei!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Did he follow us?" Weiss swung the sword point-down and carried it in a reverse grip, leading the way out of the clutter with less care than she'd entered it. She kept her footing, though, and soon enough they were facing the door. "Zwei? Can you hear us?"

More barking.

"Do you think he can open the door?" Ruby wondered.

Weiss reached out towards the door, but before she could even touch it the stone slab shimmered and began to fade from sight. The walls were fading too, as were the room's contents; soon the two of them stood in their second mysteriously-appearing dark chamber of the day, but at least this one had visible walls and ceiling. It was also, Weiss realised as her eyes adjusted, only _dim, _not dark; greenish light emanated from near the top of the high pillars which supported the vaulted ceiling. Zwei sat in front of them, wiggling his stumpy tail and looking generally pleased with himself.

"So no…but basically yes," Ruby concluded, blinking. "Hey! Look at that!" She beamed, gesturing to the sword Weiss still held. "We got a new item, and now we're out! Gamers two, haters _zero."_

"Wait—but—" Weiss looked behind them, seeing nothing but a flat expanse of wall crowned by a carving that resembled a round stained-glass window. This, too, emitted a soft green-tinted light. "How? _Are_ we really out? Is this the real world again?"

Zwei barked once.

"Is it once for yes, twice for no?" Ruby asked; she frowned when Zwei barked once. "Wait, that doesn't actually prove anything…"

"A _rose _window," Weiss said suddenly, her eyes widening.

"Do what?"

She went to point, realised she was still holding the sword, and used her right hand instead. "That thing up there—it's shaped like a kind of decorative window called a rose window. Maybe it's just a coincidence…"

"Nope, video game logic, no coincidences. Gamers three!"

"Well, if this _is _the real world, I don't think we came out in a random spot. I think this might be the entrance to wherever we were. Somehow. I mean, we found a secret room under a puzzle on the floor. Why not a secret…dimension gate or whatever inside a wall?"

Zwei gave a single bark.

"Okay, let's settle this." Ruby bent down towards Zwei. "Are you blue?"

"Ruby, he's a dog. He's red-green colour blind."

"Right, so he can tell whether he's blue or not. So are you?"

Zwei barked twice.

"Are you the cutest doggo in the whole wide world?"

Zwei barked once.

"Well if that's not empiricism, I don't know what is," Weiss drawled.

"If one bark means 'yes', he's trying to agree with you," Ruby pointed out. "So we're back in the real world?"

"_Bark!"_

"And this is some kind of door to the other place?"

"_Bark!"_

"Does that mean you could let us back in if we asked?"

Zwei hesitated. He barked thrice, then whined, flattening his ears against his head.

"Oh, that's okay," Ruby said hastily. "We didn't want to run right back in anyway. You're a good boy. C'mere."

She scooped Zwei off the floor, holding him snugly in her arms and scritching the back of his neck. He snuffled happily into the crook of her elbow.

"Um." Weiss raised the sword as Ruby looked back at her. "What do we do with this?"

"No idea," Ruby admitted. "We can figure that out when we get back to…Patch."

She froze.

"Oh _crap._ I left the house! I left the _island!_ I mean, I don't know where we are but I'm pretty sure there isn't a giant castle-y place anywhere on Patch!"

"It wasn't our fault, though," Weiss said uncertainly, Ruby's distress working its way into her as well. "They can't hold it against you, right? We just followed Zwei. We didn't even follow him off the property; we just got dumped here!"

Ruby set Zwei gently on the ground, digging out her scroll.

"Four o' clock. I think it was sometime around two-thirty when Zwei ran off. Maybe they haven't noticed we're missing yet."

Weiss thought of her scroll sitting abandoned on the patio table and felt a wave of anxious nausea, cold panic prickling over her scalp and dripping down her spine. _What if _he _called? What if he called and I didn't answer?_

"We need to get back," she said immediately, shaken. "I—I left—we need to _go."_

"Dang, still no signal," Ruby muttered, shaking her scroll. "What's the point of carrying this around if—hey, Weiss, wait up!"

The sound of Weiss's heeled footsteps echoed through the cavernous chamber as she strode quickly across it, walking between the two lines of pillars in the area that seemed best-lit. Ruby jogged to catch up with her, Zwei loping alongside. "Yeah," she said a little breathlessly, slowing to match Weiss's rapid walk. "You're right. We should pick up the pace."

There was an elevator ahead, and the button—just one, the up arrow—was lit up.

"So technically I was right before, because _this _is definitely a creepy basement," Ruby declared, jabbing the button.

Weiss's leg wouldn't stop jittering as the elevator car rose, imagining all the potential worst-case scenarios. Her own grounding, under far less lenient terms than Ruby had enjoyed. Klein, fired for allowing Weiss liberties her father never would. Her permission to attend Signal withdrawn and with it her excuse (when had it become an excuse?) to stay in Vale with Ruby and her crazy Gem family and Pyrrha and even Jaune,who was a pretty okay guy when he could be distracted from his utterly embarrassing crush on her.

"You okay?" Ruby asked softly. Weiss jerked her head in a nod, her hand tightening on the sword. The other girl looked unconvinced, but she didn't press.

The elevator doors opened. They stepped out into a round room with a large, mechanical-looking pillar in the centre. As they circled around it some of Weiss's anxieties ebbed, damped by curiosity. If it was a machine of some sort, it was powered down, not even a whisper of sound or a hint of heat emanating from it.

Ruby pushed on one of the double doors; it opened with little apparent resistance. "Unlocked," she murmured, then got a good look at what was outside and gasped.

"You're a fuzzy little security breach, you know that?" she exclaimed, looking down at Zwei. "On the bright side, I can get us home in under ten minutes if we run."

"What are you talking about?"

Ruby stood aside and gestured out the door. Weiss poked her head out and saw gleaming white stone, a film over the sky, and a strangely-familiar array of architecture. Like something she'd seen in a painting somewhere.

"Weiss Schnee," Ruby said, surprisingly formal, "welcome to Beacon."

* * *

It took closer to fifteen minutes, actually. Mostly this was because they did not, in fact, decide to run when one of them was holding a very sharp sword. Weiss also needed a good portion of the first minute to process the fact that she'd just been _inside _Beacon Tower, and her steps had slowed considerably as she tipped her head back to examine the forcefield over the sky and the front of the tower itself, once they'd gotten far enough away for it to be easily visible.

"Here we go, here we go," Ruby muttered, practically shooing Weiss onto the warp. Zwei bounded up after her. "I've never actually done this before, but it shouldbe set so Patch is the only place it can take us. Ready?"

Weiss nodded coolly, trying not to advertise either her fraying composure or her dawning nervousness about teleporting for the first time. Gemkind jealously guarded the secrets of their technology, which was notoriously difficult to reverse-engineer and heavily reliant on non-terrestrial materials, limiting how much even a well-compensated Gem informant could offer their benefactor—something Weiss's father had bemoaned more than once in her hearing. Most interested organics, Jacques Schnee included, saw teleportation as the holy grail of Gem science, and Weiss had heard her share of theories on how it was meant to work. Most of those theories, unfortunately, circled back to the idea that warps broke you down into atoms and printed you out again at the other end.

It was not something that sounded especially safe. Or comfortable.

Fortunately Weiss didn't have much time to follow that spiral down, as once Ruby stepped onto the warp the whole platform immediately lit up, reminding her of the puzzle room. And then the light was gone, and they were standing in Ruby's backyard, and the only thing that had changed was that there was a tingle in the back of her nose like she needed to sneeze.

"Okay, no one's looking—let's go!" Ruby half-whispered, jumping down from the platform. As Weiss descended the stairs, she caught a flash of movement at the house—light glinting off the handle of the back door as it turned.

"Someone's coming!" she said urgently, then yelped as Ruby immediately grabbed her arm and hauled her forward with her enhanced speed. When the world was right again, they were around the side of the house, invisible from the back door, which she heard opening.

"Hey, Rubes! Weiss? Weiss Cream?"

_Weiss Cream,_ Ruby mouthed at her, looking utterly delighted. Weiss scowled.

"Not the time!" she hissed. "What now? What are we supposed to do with the sword?"

"Umm…" Ruby looked around. "Hm…oh. Oh!"

Weiss followed her gaze to a tennis ball nestled in the grass. Something to keep Zwei entertained, presumably.

…Oh!

"You guys are still out here, right?" Yang called, a little quieter now; the door swung shut. "I'm not taking the fall if you ran off. _I'm_ not getting myself stuck here 'til August."

"Lemme see that!" Ruby reached out and took the sword from her, stabbing the point into the ball, which effectively capped the end.

"Zwei!" she whisper-shouted, patting the side of her leg emphatically. "Zwei, come here!"

"Zwei!" Weiss added her own hushed voice.

The odd-coloured corgi was still out on the warp—was in fact sunning himself on it, the lazy little reality-warper, stretched out immodestly with his front paws curled back against his chest and his back legs splayed. Evidently, now that they were home, he no longer shared their sense of urgency, entirely ignoring even Yang. He did perk up a little when Weiss made a _sspsspss _noise, turning his head to look over at them.

"Guys, come on," Yang half-whined.

"Zwei," Ruby pleaded in the exact same tone. Zwei wriggled, stretched, then rolled off the platform like a tubby ninja, landing with all four stubby paws on the ground. He began trotting towards their hiding spot.

"That's it, that's it!" Weiss encouraged him in as loud a whisper as she dared, bending down and patting her knees.

"Good boy, good Zwei, come here," Ruby cajoled.

* * *

The half-empty glasses of lemonade were warm to the touch, and a scroll sat unattended on the stone surface of the patio table. Between that and the lack of any response from the girls, Yang was well on her way from _annoyed _to _worried _until Zwei tumbled off the warp where he'd been sunbathing and trundled towards the far side of the vegetable patch.

She tilted her head, her eyes squinting suspiciously as they followed him.

Yang placed her feet carefully as she crossed the patio; more carefully still when she reached the grass, turning her ankles so she slunk like a cat, keeping an eye on where her shadow fell in front of her. As she got closer, she heard an overlapping stream of half-whispered encouragements. A slow smirk spread over her face.

"And just _what _is going on here?" she drawled as she rounded the corner. "Ruby and Weissy, sittin' in a—?"

Her sly, casual posture failed immediately, eyes widening, spine straightening, arms dropping from where she'd started to cross them. Ruby, Weiss, and even Zwei all stared up at her in guilty surprise. Weiss was holding Zwei in her lap, while Ruby was in the process of feeding a long, slender object topped by a tennis ball into the corgi's floof.

"No, seriously," Yang managed after a long moment of frozen silence. "What the hell am I looking at?"

"Historical re-enactment," Weiss blurted out immediately, almost drowned out by Ruby's loud "Nothing! You see nothing!"

Yang pointed at Ruby but fixed her gaze on Weiss. "Nope." Her finger moved to the human girl. _"What?"_

Weiss's mouth worked silently. She exchanged a panicked glance with Ruby. "Cassia falling on her sword?" she suggested weakly.

"Alas, cruel fate," Ruby croaked. "The pain is too much to bear."

"Guilt," Weiss corrected her in an undertone. "It was guilt."

"The guilt!" Ruby cried, looking deeply uncomfortable. "For I have—uh—I have—Yang, _put that away!"_

"Yang!" Weiss wailed in counterpoint.

"Nope," Yang repeated without taking her eyes off her scroll. She continued to film. "This is really what you're going with, I'mma document _every word._ Keep going, this is gold. The camera loves you guys." She twirled her hand, _keep rolling._

Ruby and Weiss looked at each other again, seeming to share a moment of silent communication. Then, carefully, Ruby adjusted her grip on the thing lodged in Zwei's floof and drew it out.

Slowly, Yang lowered her scroll. Her chest felt tight. Funny how breathing only felt optional until she couldn't.

"Where did you find that?" she asked quietly.

* * *

Ruby had started to explain, but Yang had quickly cut her off. "No, wait. Not here. Just—shove the sword in the dog and meet me in my room."

So the passage of several minutes had found them sitting in Yang's room—Ruby on the inexplicable bed, Yang slumped on a beanbag chair, and Weiss gingerly perched on the edge of a dressing table half-covered with a neatly-arranged assortment of brushes, combs, and what appeared to be a single bottle of purple nail polish. Zwei was curled up at Ruby's feet, mouthing at the tennis ball they'd removed from the sword, which now rested in Yang's hands.

"Some kind of secret vault at Beacon, huh?" she mused, tilting the blade and watching as it caught the light.

Ruby nodded. "It was full of a bunch of stuff she must've collected over time. Clothes, books, little things."

"And that sword." Weiss crossed her arms. "It was the only weapon we saw in there. I thought Summer's weapon was like Ruby's—it can transform into anything, right?"

"It can turn into a customised version of any weapon summoned by any Gem its wielder's ever Fused with," Yang confirmed.

"'Fused'?" Weiss echoed blankly.

"Wait, that's how—? But I've never Fused before!" Ruby protested.

"Guess your Gemstone remembers Summer's Fusions or something. So as long as _you've_ seen a weapon belonging to a Gem your mom Fused with, you can copy it."

"But why get a special material sword, then? Couldn't she have just…found another Gem with a sword?"

Yang snickered. "What, you think Summer just ran around looking for weapons she wanted to collect so she could Fuse with their owners? Fusion's not really an on-demand, casual thing. Remember that whole heart-to-heart Qrow and I needed before we could do it? And we'd even Fused with each other before!" She shook her head. "Besides, this isn't just any sword. It's specially made to harness Dust. See these exhaust ports? Summer could use them to power up the blade with different elements, or send out beams and bursts of Dust. Great for non-lethal takedowns, taking advantage of the environment, even reshaping the battlefield by putting up barriers."

She gestured with the blade as she spoke, her motions hardly those of an expert swordswoman but graceful and controlled nonetheless. Somehow. Despite the fact that she never actually got up from the beanbag chair.

"So you actually saw her use it before!" Ruby exclaimed.

"A couple times." Yang's expression grew distant as she lowered the sword again, shifting her weight to sit with her back a little straighter. "Not often. But I know she used it a lot back in the war. It was all official-looking and leader-ly, and all those Dust tricks must've been useful in those kinds of bigger battles. We looked for it after she…after you were born, but we couldn't find it. Guess now we know why."

There was a moment of quiet, none of them meeting each other's eyes. Zwei continued to champ and worry at the tennis ball, oblivious to the mood. It was Ruby, her voice slow and reluctant, who finally spoke.

"We should tell the others about this, shouldn't we."

"We should," Yang agreed, shifting uncomfortably. Her chair made a sound like a shaken maraca.

"It's the responsible thing to do. …But I wasn't supposed to leave the property."

"We didn't mean to," Weiss said again, but Yang had already picked up the thread.

"And we did _just _get to the point where we're all cool with each other again. Be a shame to rock the boat now."

"Plus Qrow just got back from one of his _rragh mighty Huntsman _trips and I don't wanna mess up his decompression."

"And you know Oz isn't gonna take it well when he finds out there's a pocket dimension he didn't know about in his basement."

"Oh my gods, we'll never get him to warm up to Zwei if he finds out he can get past the shield!"

"Okay, time out!" Weiss cut them off, sweeping her arms through the air in an X shape. "Didn't you guys _just _get in trouble for going behind people's backs? And now you want to do it again?"

Ruby looked down at the ground. Yang opted for the ceiling instead, tapping her foot anxiously, rolling the sword in her hands.

"Couldn't you at least tell your dad?" Weiss asked Ruby.

"No way the information stops at him," Yang said, shaking her head; for her part, Ruby nodded agreement. "Tai takes his job seriously, and he and Qrow actually hang out sometimes. Either he'll feel like he has to report it to Ozpin as a matter of Beacon's security or he'll end up spilling to Qrow because of a guilty conscience."

"In other words, all the reasons _you _should be telling them yourselves?"

"Don't you mean _we?"_

Weiss's hand clenched on her scroll. She hadn't missed any calls or messages while she and Ruby had been working to escape Summer's vault. But the chain of responsibility kept going. What if they told and someone reached out to her father and told _him_ what had happened? Qrow clearly didn't have a high enough opinion of the Schnee family to say anything, but Ozpin might consider it a professional obligation and even if he didn't Taiyang might feel Jacques was owed an explanation as a fellow father.

"I don't know," she said quietly.

Ruby spoke up again at last. "How about this? We don't tell them for now. Just for now! We look for some answers on our own, and we talk to them once we know the whole story. That way no one has to worry about it, and maybe it'll have been long enough no one'll be upset either."

"The whole story? What's there to investigate?" Yang asked. "Zwei's an enigma, but we don't really have any way of figuring out where he came from or what's up with him; we just let it slide 'cause he's obviously a friendly. I mean, look at 'im. The vault? I don't know how you'd even build something like that, let alone hide it, let _alone _make it so a dog unlocks it. We've got plenty of questions, but where could we start looking for answers?"

"So you think we _should _tell the others?"

"No! I just…we can't really say 'oh, we'll tell them when we have answers' but not actually have a plan to get answers. If we're gonna lie so we don't get in trouble, we should own that we're doing that, not pretend like it's temporary to make ourselves feel better."

"I know where we could start," Weiss said suddenly. "Yang, do you have anything to draw with?"

"Uh—yeah, in the drawer under you."

Weiss turned her hips and sure enough, her legs had been blocking the vanity's drawer. She got down and opened it, finding an old leather-bound notebook and a couple of pens.

"Anyway!" Yang said in a brighter tone behind her. "Sword's yours now."

"I don't know how to use it, though," she heard Ruby say.

"Cool, that makes all of us. 'Cept maybe Ozpin, I guess. Fights like his cane's a sword half the time anyway…"

Weiss tuned them out as she resumed her seat on the vanity, doing her best to roughly sketch the crown shape that Ruby had insisted didn't belong with the Rose Rebellion symbol. Yang might have been the youngest Gem, but that still made her thousands of years older than either of them. Maybe she'd know something.

"Here," she said when she was done, handing the notebook and pen to Yang and cutting her off mid-sentence. The Ametrine's hands were empty now; Ruby held the sword gingerly in her lap. "We found this carved into the same surface as the Rebellion symbol puzzle. Do you recognise it?"

Yang raised her eyebrows as she examined the drawing. "Hey, this is actually pretty good. Looks good, anyway, I have no idea if it looks like what you were trying to draw."

"…So that's a no."

"Yeah, I've never seen it before." She closed the notebook with a _thump, _dropping it next to her and fidgeting with the pen. "But if it was carved next to a bunch of Huntsman emblems, smart money says it's another Huntsman emblem, and that means it might be in the registry."

"There's a registry?"

"Used to be, back before Hunting was all freelance work."

"Do you have access?" Ruby asked.

"Sure. I just have to warp over to Haven and use one of their library terminals once I'm allowed to leave the house again."

Weiss exchanged confused looks with Ruby. "Why Haven?"

"Beacon's all powered down. The elevators shouldn't even have been running." Yang frowned again. "I guess Qrow and Ozpin must have forgotten to shut them off after the _Lamp _mission."

"So we're agreed, then. We don't read the others in until after we've solved the mystery of the crown emblem…or things have gone completely sideways and it's obviously too dangerous to keep hiding the information even if Qrow's going to chew us out and Ozpin's going to be too disappointed to even look at us and Dad'll look all sad and probably say something about how being smart and careful doesn't just mean staying out of danger in the first place…"

Ruby's confident tone weakened as she spoke, her determined expression slowly morphing into one of dread.

"Not too late to tell everyone today," Yang ventured, without much enthusiasm.

Another awkward pause.

"Well! We'll have to hide the sword—I guess inside Zwei's floof, just to be extra-safe. Not like any of us can…" Suddenly Ruby looked up at Weiss, something sparking behind her eyes. _"You _can use it!"

"She what now?" Yang turned her head to stare at her, raising a dubious eyebrow.

Weiss blushed under the scrutiny. "I—I fence." She lifted her chin, setting her jaw. _"Competitively._ I've placed several times in Atlesian leagues."

"Yeah? How high?" Yang challenged.

"High enough!"

"Yang! Quit it. You can get Dust pretty easily too, right Weiss? So you could actually use it the way Mom meant it to be used."

Before Weiss could quite process what was happening, Ruby was in front of her, offering her the sword up in her palms with a cheerful smile.

"Besides, I'm already trying to learn how to use three different kinds of weapons, and I've only gotten as far as I have with the rifle and the scythe by slacking off in hand-to-hand."

"Oh _now _she admits it!"

"_Yang!"_ Ruby wheeled around, stomping her foot. "I am _trying _to have a moment here!"

"You're _trying _to give me your mom's sword." Weiss couldn't help the way her eyes locked onto the beautiful blade; she was drawn to it. "It's practically an heirloom. I can't take something like that. A-and I'm a fencer, not a fighter! There's a huge difference between what I do and real fighting."

She reached out and closed Ruby's hands around the sword.

"Thank you for being willing to trust me with this, but…I can't use it, either. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be sorry," Ruby said, shaking her head. "I shouldn't have tried to push it on you. I don't always think about how fighting and hunting and stuff aren't part of everyone's lives and…_I'm _sorry." She laughed ruefully, holding the sword in her closed fists against her chest. "I'm really not tryingto keep dragging you into danger."

"I know. And I…" Weiss fixed her eyes on a point over Ruby's shoulder. "I don't really mind," she admitted quietly. "It's kind of fun."

A sharp sound pulled them out of the moment; Yang had clapped her hands together, holding them like that in front of her widely-smiling mouth.

"Did I just hear Weiss give the all-clear for _on-purpose_ crazy adventures?"

Slowly, Ruby grinned. "You know, I think you did!"

"Why are you guys looking at me like that? …Seriously, stop it, you're creeping me out!"

Yang picked up the notebook and pen again, flipping to a fresh page and beginning to write. "Don't mind me, just writing a list of all the awesome places we have to take you now…"

"A-aren't you supposed to be cooking dinner or something!?"

"Eh, I'll order in. My treat." Yang flipped another page, pen poised. "What d'you want?"

Ruby gasped. "West Animan! _Fried dumplings."_

"Oh _hell _yes. Hey, Weiss, you a wonton girl or a dumpling girl?"

"Either?"

"Ah, the indecisive person's 'both'. Both it is. Hmm, Meihua does some Mistralian too…should order that weird adzuki dessert Oz likes…"

Weiss watched on helplessly as the conversation spun away from her, feeling as if she'd just signed a contract without reading it. She hadn't meant to imply she was okay with leaping blindly into danger, but she couldn't bring herself to correct them or take back what she'd said. So did that mean she _was _okay with it, then?

She found her attention drawn once again to the sword in Ruby's hands as she and Yang continued to build an absurdly-large list of Animan foodstuffs. She'd meant what she said. She didn't think she could fight with that sword or any other, not in real combat. But there was a part of her that really wanted to try. She wanted to be able to keep up with Ruby, to try to catch up to Yang. She wanted to be someone who didn't think twice about going off on crazy adventures full of sci-fi super tech and monsters and magic. It was part of Ruby's life, and some of the best parts of Weiss's life lately had been the parts that overlapped with that.

…Maybe when she got home, she'd try some new drills. Change up her footwork a little. And maybe see if she could scrounge up some Dust without drawing too much attention from her father.

"Hey, Weiss!" Yang tossed her an open scroll that Weiss barely caught in time, startled out of her reverie. "That's their menu. Pick an entrée!"

"Half of this isn't even authentic," Weiss sighed, looking it over.

"And some of the best curries were invented by Mantelians. Doesn't mean they're not delicious."

"Zwei," Ruby pleaded. "Come on, I need that tennis ball back. I don't wanna stab you through the floof on accident."

Weiss ducked her head to read over the menu, barely even taking it in. Mostly, she just needed to hide her smile. It wouldn't do to let them think she _enjoyed _all the weirdness, now would it?

* * *

_**A/N: Aaaaah I'm so excited to write the next chapter because according to the outline it's time for Mirror Gem! It's not supposed to be a two-parter, so Chapter 9 shouldn't end on any kind of cliffhanger, but in case it was unclear I have no idea what I'm doing. I just write fanfiction, man. What happens, happens.**_

_**Reviews are as always very welcome. Thanks for reading!**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Now see, this? This is more my usual kind of gap between updates. Whoops. Also hey, remember when I said this wasn't gonna be a two-parter? Double whoops. That said, I am real excited for reactions to both this chapter and the next, so as always, your feedback is appreciated!**_

_**Ruby, Weiss, and Yang start to unravel the mystery of Summer's secret chamber and the unfamiliar crown emblem, but while searching for the next piece to the puzzle, they stumble across the last thing any of them ever expected to find. Whether it's a dark secret or just a terrible mistake is anybody's guess, but the Rose Rebellion may not have been the shining example of nobility they all grew up believing it to be…**_

_**I hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

**Record Time**

"Remember,"Ruby told Weiss, _"_make sure youcall him _Doctor_ Oobleck. A lot of Sphenes go into research or teaching because of the whole learning-obsessed thing, so academic titles are a big deal."

"We ready?" Yang prompted, already holding the door knocker in her hand. It, like the rest of the small house, was ornate yet worn, cared-for but still obviously _old_—a fairly typical combination in those neighbourhoods of Vale which existed under the care and watch of the Vale Historical Society. Preservation was a double-edged sword.

"Ready," Ruby confirmed.

Weiss crossed her arms. "Let's just hope he has some answers for us…"

Yang let the knocker drop. Almost as soon as it made contact with the plate, the impact resounding sharply through the air, the door snapped open, revealing a slight, unkempt figure who was all-over green, from his yellow-green skin to his dandelion-puff of dark green hair; a shockingly yellow tie stood out against the dull colours of his rumpled shirt and trousers. His shoes, as ever, were mismatched, and Ruby was moved once again to wonder if he'd manifested like that or if he'd forgotten shoes entirely and just threw on whatever material ones came to hand when he needed them. His eyes were barely visible through thick, round lenses that covered a disproportionate amount of his face. A triangular Gemstone sat just above the bridge of those, at the very top of his nose: apple green, flecked with glints of orange and yellow as it caught the light.

"Ruby! Yang!" Oobleck's words were clipped and sharp—not upset, just _fast._ If he'd been organic, Ruby would have expected to hear his neck pop from the speed with which he looked between them. "You!" He jabbed a finger at Weiss. "You, I don't know."

"She's a friend of mine," Ruby said. "Her name's Weiss. Hello, Doctor Oobleck!"

"Hey, Doc!" Yang chimed in.

"Yes, yes, hello, I assumed, very good. Come in!"

He vanished from the doorway in a blur, leaving Weiss gaping at the empty foyer. She snapped her jaw shut quickly and lifted her chin, glaring at Ruby and Yang as if daring them to say anything.

"Sphenes also have super-speed," Yang said airily, stepping over the threshold. "Read faster, think faster, move faster."

"Mostly Oobleck's just impatient though." Ruby followed the Ametrine in, gesturing encouragingly to Weiss, who at last ventured inside and shut the door gently behind her.

Well, she tried to, anyway. Ultimately she had to haul against it with her shoulder and hip before it finally sunk heavily back into its frame with a deep, squealing-scraping _thump._

"Old houses," Ruby said apologetically, feeling an unaccountable need to explain. "Nothing fits right. Uh, he'll be in the dining room."

Which did in fact contain a dining table, but that was about all that connected it to its alleged function. All but two of the chairs were weighted down with books, the table strewn with more tomes and notebooks and loose-leaf paper, pens and half-sharpened pencils scattered among empty coffee mugs. Oobleck was blurring around the room; two more chairs emptied before Ruby's eyes, the piles on the table growing higher and more precarious as a result.

"Please, sit down!" When Oobleck became visible again, he was smiling, standing behind the chair at…well, technically the head of the table, but it had drifted well to the left of centre. Yang took the other chair that had been empty, leaving Ruby and Yang to settle on the far side of the table from the door, on Oobleck's left.

"Now!" Suddenly Oobleck was in the chair, a brief shudder of colour and stirring of air all there was to mark the motion. "How can I help you ladies?" His hands were clasped on the table, the interlaced fingers of each hand drumming against the knuckles of the other as he looked expectantly between the three of them. "Peter's out right now, if he's the one you're looking for."

"'Peter'?" Weiss asked out of the corner of her mouth.

"Mr. Port," Ruby murmured in kind. "Dr. Oobleck's housemate."

"Nah, just wanted to ask you about something, Doc." Yang pulled out her copy of Weiss's drawing, unfolding it as she spoke. "Looks like someone's emblem, but I didn't get any hits when I ran it through the Hunt registry."

Once Yang's search had proved fruitless, Weiss had gone through as many of her family's records as she could, while for her part Ruby had crept through Ozpin's workroom when he'd gone out for a day, photographing anything she planned to investigate before she dared to touch it and replacing everything she moved with extreme care. Neither the Schnee archives nor Ozpin's files had yielded any information on the mysterious crown symbol, however. Oobleck was the court of last resort before a tedious manual search of Beacon itself—at least the parts Yang couldn't eliminate right off.

It looked like that might not be necessary though: Oobleck's eyes widened behind the thick lenses of his glasses, and he snatched the paper out of Yang's hands with a force and speed that caused the edge to tear. "Where did you see this?" he demanded. The girls exchanged quick looks.

"An old carving up at Beacon," Ruby said; their agreed-upon half-truth. Oobleck had been bound to ask. "Do you know what it is, Doctor?"

Oobleck was silent, silent for as long as Ruby could ever remember him being. "It's an emblem," he agreed at last. "Have you shown this to Ozpin? Qrow?"

"Meaning _they_ would recognise it!" Weiss had a glint in her eye.

"Meaning you didn't." Oobleck's face pinched into disapproval.

"It's nothing dangerous, is it?" Ruby asked anxiously.

"Well." Oobleck's frown deepened, but his eyes flicked away; he nudged the bridge of his glasses as though to adjust them, though it didn't look like they'd shifted at all on his face. "I suppose not."

"And can you _really _see Qrow or," something between a laugh and a scoff escaped Yang, _"Ozpin_ giving us a straight answer?"

"_I _don't want to give you a straight answer," Oobleck admitted, much to Ruby's surprise; like most Sphenes, he hadn't strayed far from his remote as a scholar and consultant. Absorbing and then sharing information was literally what he had been made for, and normally he relished it. "But better I than them, so soon after losing Lady Rose…"

'So soon' meaning Ruby's entire life—but to a Gem, it might as well have been yesterday. An unsettling thought, given her presumed mortality. She shoved it away.

"This emblem isn't in the registry because its owner wasn't a Huntress. She never got the chance to become one." Oobleck smoothed out the drawing with strange care, wistfulness tinging his heavy tone. "The name she chose was Glynda. She was a Rebellion soldier—an officer, but the lines blurred, such a small force, so much to do. You know Ozpin was a general?—well, commander; we didn't know any rank system outside Homeworld's castes, so besides the Lady we had commanders, their seconds, and then the rank and file. Glynda was Ozpin's second. Unforgiving taskmaster—brilliant warrior—loyal follower, loyal friend."

A look of knowing dread crept over Yang's face.

"'Was'?" Ruby echoed, feeling sick to her stomach.

"She was shattered," Yang said. "Wasn't she?"

"You've heard of her?" Ruby asked.

"Not even once." Yang didn't look away from Oobleck, who'd closed his eyes. "That's how I know."

"When you say shattered," Weiss began, clearly uneasy, "you don't mean…?"

Ruby's hand reflexively moved to shield her vulnerable Gemstone. She could see Yang cradle her elbow, Oobleck brush his fingers between his eyes, caught by the same urge to reassure themselves they were whole and unmarred.

"Oh," Weiss whispered.

"None of us handled the news well," Oobleck admitted softly, his words measured in a way Ruby had never heard from him. "Qrow was enraged, wanted revenge. And Ozpin…got very still, and very quiet, and he's never quite been the way he was before. A little bit quieter and a little bit more still. Two good friends gone in as many weeks." Oobleck shook his head. "Poor Lady Rose. The look on her face when she brought back the shards…"

* * *

"Well, now I'm just _sad,"_ Yang complained, kicking in the general direction of a fallen stick as they walked away from the weary old house and the weary old Gem inside it.

"At least we have an idea about where to look for more information." Ruby was feeling rather subdued as well, but she tried to focus on the positive. "If Glynda worked for Ozpin, she must have worked in Beacon Tower, right?"

"Right." Yang nodded. "It's supposed to be the oldest part of the fortress, so even if she didn't, that's probably where we'll find anything dating back to the Gem War, but I'd lay money on her having space there."

"And since now we know your mother's vault can't have been built before Beacon was or after the war ended—probably not after Glynda…died—maybe answers about her will lead to answers about the vault," Weiss said. "Or Zwei, I guess. How are we going to search, though? Floor by floor?"

"Yep," said Yang; before Weiss could protest, the Gem added, "starting from the top. Right below the top, actually, 'cause we can rule out Ozpin's office, but he wouldn't have wanted his right-hand Gem too far away. I mean, come on; he literally _lives_ with all of us. So back to Patch, or do we got another stop?"

"Back to Patch," Ruby confirmed. "And up to Beacon."

* * *

Three elevators, three searchers, and the safest place on the planet—splitting up to search it was a no-brainer, once they worked out who'd take which floors. Yang's prediction proved accurate, though: they hadn't made it even a fifth of the way down the tower before Ruby's phone chimed. Weiss had found something.

"Why is everything from the CCT floor up open-plan and then the rest of the floors are like _this?"_ Ruby wondered, knocking her knuckles against the curved wall opposite the elevator as she followed it around. Weiss had said she'd be in the fifth room on the left past the elevators.

"You just answered your own question," Yang told her. "The whole place is built around an old Gem comms tower—that thing taking up the whole middle of the ground floor? It keeps going up through the outer tower. Vale's CCTS piggybacks off of it."

"So the CCT floor is the top of the comms tower?"

"And it and everything higher were added in by the Rebellion later on."

Ruby counted the floors in her head. "The CCT floor is the next one up," she realised.

"So this would've been the old tower's top floor, I guess."

"Which means we should have searched here _first," _came Weiss's exasperated voice; she was standing in the doorway of the room she'd called them to, her arms crossed over her chest. She'd left her hat back at the house on Patch, but she still had her little purse slung across her body. Zwei sat at her feet—he'd decided to follow them into the warp, and while he responded best to Ruby normally, his keen dog instincts had allowed him to identify Weiss as the Ultimate Sucker, and he had latched onto her accordingly. "If you knew this used to be the top, why didn't you say so?"

"I don't know _when _it was the top!" Yang protested. "People kept working on Beacon all through the war! I just told you everything I know about it; it looked like it does now the first time I saw it, but who knows when they finished construction? For all I know, Glynda could have moved in the day after they stuck the light on top. Or they might've done that centuries after the war ended! I never asked! It wasn't important."

Weiss rolled her eyes, but didn't argue the point further—she did that a lot when she didn't want to concede an argument she was pretty sure she was losing. "Well, I think we know now," she said, turning on her heel and leading them inside, Zwei trotting beside her.

The room inside was thick with dust, enough to make Ruby sneeze. It formed a heavy layer over the utilitarian glass desk, the sci-fi curves of the metal chair behind it, the low shelf of bottles and jars and strange devices set against the opposite wall. A few books and files took up another, taller set of shelves—odd to think of Gems using paper, but then again Ozpin did, and he _had _been in charge here once. There wasn't much else in the room; the space was brutally spare.

"I know," Weiss groaned as Ruby sneezed again. "I've already gone through half my pack of tissues." She reached into her purse and handed one to Ruby, who took it gratefully. "How are some of the rooms so dusty? No one comes here anymore but Gems, and you don't have cells to shed."

"Most of this place is cleaner," Ruby agreed, plaintive through her stuffing-up nose.

Yang pointed across to a louvred window, cracked open less than an inch. "Between that and the gaps around the door, I guess. I don't see any vents."

"That's strange, though, isn't it?"

Yang waved a hand vaguely. "Well, when you don't need to breathe or keep your temperature stable…"

"But the rest of the tower is set up for organics. The whole campus is practically a monument to cross-species cooperation. Why not this room?" Weiss persisted.

Ruby looked around again. Thought of the sorrow and lonliness that filled so much of Beacon, making her heart ache. It was as thick in this office as the dust.

"Because no one comes in here," she said quietly. "Ever. The window's open because the last person to use the room last left it that way before they left for good, and no one ever came to close it. There's no vent because no one ever came to put one in. It's been _left _like this. Like a shrine."

Yang and Weiss went quiet, digesting that. Ruby shook herself. "So what'd you find, Weiss?"

Weiss opened her mouth to speak, then seemed to change her mind, instead walking around behind the desk and picking up a small metallic box which had been sitting on it. It was less dusty than everything else—but it would be, if Weiss had already picked it up and looked at it before contacting them. She held it out, letting them see the crown emblem etched into the lid.

"Ooh." Yang reached out, eyes gleaming with interest. "What's in it?"

But Weiss drew it back towards herself, looking torn. "Shards," she said at last. "Gem shards."

"Glynda," Ruby guessed. It was as if the box possessed its own gravity. She couldn't tear her eyes away.

Neither could Weiss, even as she lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Who else?"

"…Well." Yang took in a breath and blew it out forcefully. "Guess this is her office, then." She looked around, her voice softening. "Oh, man. It's not a shrine at all. It's her tomb."

Weiss's movements were gentle and careful as she replaced the box on the desk, tracing her fingers lightly over Glynda's emblem. "Whoever did this could've at least straightened up a little." Reproach tinged her voice. "It just doesn't seem very respectful."

To Ruby's surprise, Yang made a noise of dissent, somewhere between a thoughtful hum and a grunt. "I mean, they took the time to make that box, and they left her shards in a place where she left her mark," she elaborated when the other girls looked at her curiously. "Gems use Gemstone shards as spare parts, you know that? There's tons of energy and processing power all going to waste once the consciousness inside's been smashed up. We're big on the whole 'reduce, reuse, recycle' thing. Well—the last two, anyway."

Ruby found that idea uncomfortable, but she tried to set it aside. _It's not really my place to judge, I guess. _"So…this is a big deal by Gem standards?" she surmised.

"And a waste of resources," Weiss said, looking uncomfortable even as she seemed to grasp the logic.

"Hey, we're not totally heartless about shattered Gems! We just don't have the same hang-ups and rituals as organics." Yang put a hand on her hip. "If we know what a Gem wanted done with their shards, we do it. Otherwise we play it safe and bubble what's left of them."

"Wait, so have you all sat down and talked about what you want to happen if…something happens?" Ruby wrinkled her nose. "Sounds kind of morbid."

"I suppose it's not all that different from writing a will," Weiss reflected.

Yang snorted. "I think Ozpin _did _writea will, 'cause—" She gestured around the room and by extension the campus as a whole. "Property and crap. I _know _he and Qrow have a pact that if one of them dies the other uses their shards to build something cool. I told 'em to just shove me under my sunflowers." She grinned. "They'll be stuck gardening _forever_ if they outlive me!"

"That's a healthy outlook," Weiss sighed.

Yang shrugged. "Healthier than a dusty office and a pocket-sized coffin. It's supposed to be respectful, but _damn, _this is sad."

It was as if her words summoned the oppressive atmosphere of earlier back into the room, and Glynda's—_shoot, _Yang was right, Glynda's _coffin _drew their attention once again. Ruby shivered, turning away.

"Right! Well, we know what we're here for, team!"

"No, we don't," Weiss scoffed.

"I mean, we've got a vague idea," Yang tried.

"No. We don't."

"This was one-third _your _idea, Weiss!" Ruby protested, eyes beseeching.

"Which is why I'm here." Weiss crossed her arms. "I'm just saying we shouldn't expect this to be easy."

"Nothing ever is," Yang groaned, stretching her arms behind her.

"Pessimists! Pessimists, the both of you!" Ruby pointed towards the shelves. "Yang, you're the only one who can read Gem writing, so you're on written-word duty."

"_Read,"_ Yang echoed, hooking her fingers into air-quotes as she walked past Ruby as directed. "Well, one word in four's better than nothing, I guess…"

"Weiss, look through the cabinets. I'll see if I can get the desk terminal running."

Weiss dismissively waved a hand in the air and went to it. "Better you than me."

Ruby circled Glynda's desk and hopped up into the _impossibly uncomfortable _chair, wincing and wiggling as she tried to find a position that wouldn't leave her sore.

"Stupid hard-light people who don't need padding or back support or—seriously, no arm-rests? Ugh," she grumbled under her breath. Maybe this thing had been ripped right off the bridge of a cool space battleship. Or maybe it had been made by someone with zero experience in making chairs because there was a war going on and beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Alright, computer," Ruby purred, bracing her hands on the desk surface and smirking. "Prepare to surrender your secrets."

* * *

"_Ugh _I give _up!"_ Ruby wailed, dropping her forehead to the desk with a sharp _thump _that was more loud than painful.

"Wow. Such an epic battle," Weiss said, deadpan. "No one can say you didn't stick it out. I mean, an entire half-hour, that's really something, Ruby."

"Forty minutes!" Ruby screeched, pointing at the terminal's holographic display. "It took _ten _to get to this screen! Yang, are you _sure _you translated the password hint correctly!?"

Yang didn't even look over. "I am one hundred percent confident in my translation."

"You're a hundred percent confident in _everything _you do," Weiss pointed out dryly.

"That's the power of self-actualisation, baby!"

"_Ugh._ Look," Weiss said, leaning closer to Ruby and looking up at the display, "even if you guess the password correctly, how do you know you're putting it in right? Those symbols look more like Animan kanjithan the Vytal alphabet we're used to."

"And those are the simplified versions!" Yang chimed in.

"This is a nightmare," Ruby groaned. "How are _none _of us fluent in Gem-ese or whatever?"

"Hey! It's hard enough to keep up with all the human languages. Do you even know how much of a relief it was when this weird Valean-Mantelian mashup caught on?"

Weiss preened. "I'm actually fluent in three other languages, thank you very much."

Wordlessly, Ruby swiped her hand over the desk's surface, sliding the holographic keyboard down to Weiss's position in a smooth blur of light.

"…Organic languages. I have no idea what I'm looking at here."

"It gets better," Ruby said, propping her chin on her palm and giving Weiss a dead-eyed stare. "If you need to input numbers, remember to use base-8."

"You're serious?"

"Ye_p."_ She popped the plosive hard.

"Whoa, hey! Check this out!"

At Yang's call, Ruby and Weiss perked up. Yang was straightening from her crouch on the floor, holding a hardbound book triumphantly aloft.

"What is it?" Ruby asked, sliding out of the chair.

"The symbol on the first page means _record._ Noun, not verb. No idea what it's a record _of, _but that's promising, right? And get a load of this!" Yang turned the book so its front cover was facing the girls, and Ruby felt a shock go through her.

From beside her, Weiss asked, "Is that a _Gem?"_

"Yup. Or it was, anyway." Yang's words were light and unbothered, but Ruby saw her brows draw together as she looked down at the book, or more specifically at the Gemstone embedded in its cover. It was a perfectly-round cabochon with a glassy shine, setting it distinctly apart from the silky gloss of Qrow's elongated Pearl stone, but this was the first black Gemstone Ruby had seen other than his. And like his, it wasn't _really _black: when the light caught it just right, she thought it looked more like a very dark blue or purple, semi-transparent, and she could see a faint satin-sheen of yellow threaded through it like a tiger's-eye, the pattern invisible unless you looked at it from the right angle. There was even a blue-violet streak running down the heart of the stone, but it was a little difficult to see in the Gem's present condition.

"It's cracked through," Ruby observed aloud, sombre.

"Just about," Yang agreed, brushing the tip of her finger against the intact lower edge of the Gemstone. A narrow, jagged fissure ran across it diagonally from the upper-right edge, a little chip missing from the point where the crack began.

"Why would you build a Gemstone into a book, though? What would that even do?" Ruby wondered.

Yang opened the book carefully, moreso than Ruby had expected from her, and showed her the pages. They weren't paper, weren't even flexible at all, but were instead thin plates of a greenish-grey-brown material with a strange sheen to it.

"Mica," Weiss identified, frowning. Yang nodded.

"I think they've been treated somehow to make them stronger, but yeah. The covers are petrified wood. This whole book is made of stone."

"And it's supposed to be a…record?" Ruby turned that over in her brain. "A Record."

"Information set in stone," Weiss mused.

"And powered by one, for some reason."

Ruby turned and banished the display over Glynda's terminal, and Yang stepped past her to set the Record down. Ruby and Weiss crowded around her as she carefully turned the delicate, almost see-through pages, eyes skimming over the glyphs embossed in gleaming gold.

"Most of this looks like it's probably about the Gem War," she said. "Big surprise, right?"

"Could you be a little more specific?" Weiss asked dryly.

"Ease up, Weissy. This isn't exactly _Pumpkin Pete's Big Day._ I'll let you know if anything jumps out at me. So far I haven't even seen a _name, _just the symbol for Beacon and a bunch of different Gem types."

"Gem types are easy to recognise, right?" Ruby prompted. "Do you know the symbol for Rose Quartz?"

"Sure do, but depending on how old the Record is, Summer might not be the only Rose Quartz mentioned," Yang pointed out. "Good idea, though. If I focus on the glyphs for Gem types, that might give us some clues to what's going on."

She went back to the beginning, skimming the pages faster this time now that she knew what she was looking for. "Lotta mentions of a Bismuth. Same one, I think. Ditto an Agate…a 'Near-Perfect' Agate? …Oh, I bet that's 'white', actually. First Rose Quartz name-drop…_dah dah-dah dah-dah…_"

"Why _doesn't _this thing use actual names, or Homeworld ID codes?" Ruby asked, a new thought occurring to her. "It had to have been written down by someone in the Rebellion, so why wouldn't they have made it clear who they were writing about?"

"That's actually a really good question," Yang muttered, frowning a little herself now.

"That's bad record-keeping, _that's _what it is," Weiss said decisively, crossing her arms.

"Flip to the last page," Ruby urged. "Let's see if we can figure out where it stops."

Lacking a better idea, Yang acquiesced, slipping her fingers under a stack of glassy pages and turning them gently over, flicking to the last few pages left before finally finding one with blank space left on it. The next several pages were blank as well.

"Here it is," she declared—and a new glyph etched itself onto the page before her. "Whoa!"

"How is that happening?" Weiss whispered, watching as three more symbols appeared.

"Is _this _what the Gemstone's for?" Ruby wondered. "The Record writes itself!"

"But what's it writing _now?"_

"Us," Yang said, stunned, watching as the last of the new symbols flickered between two different shapes. "I'm an Ametrine," she told the Record in a curiously soft tone, and the glyph shuddered for a moment before re-forming an entirely new shape which combined elements of the two it had been torn between. "See? That's its name for me now. And there's _almost-perfect organic-sapient—_which should be _white human_._"_

Ruby glanced over at Weiss long enough to see her spitefully mouth the words 'almost-perfect' to herself, looking rather insulted.

"It thinks you're human too, Rubes," Yang said. "And…I don't think it understands how names work, or it would at least be using the same nicknames I have, right?"

"Computers only understand inputs they've been told the meaning of. I think." Ruby tilted her head. "Maybe it's like that?"

"But it knows what Gems are," Weiss argued. "So why does it call you a human? It could put two ideas together to make _Ametrine,_ so why can't it squish _Rose Quartz _into—_organic-sentient _or whatever?"

"Because it understands how Gem types work," Ruby said slowly, "but human-plus-Gem doesn't make sense to it. So it's going off the fact that I'm organic and calling me human."

Yang was still watching their conversation unfold on the Record's pages. "It hesitated," she said suddenly, reclaiming the girls' attention. "When it wrote the symbol it's using for Ruby? It _hesitated._ It didn't do that before. I don't think it's just recording what we say."

"It's…_learning?"_ Weiss breathed.

"Like an AI?" Ruby suggested. "Like Jinn? That must be how it's understanding us even though we're speaking Valean!"

Slowly, Yang eased the book closed and stared at the Gemstone embedded on its cover. "It's not an AI. A broken Gemstone can't hold an AI. If it could, it'd still…it'd still be _alive."_

The word fell into the room, heavy yet strangely delicate, not unlike the Record itself.

_Not _it_self,_ Ruby realised with rising horror. _Himself? Herself? Themself?_

"There's a _person _in there?" Weiss managed at last, her voice cracking right at the end.

Ruby lifted her chin. "Not for long. Operation: Why Is There A Garden In The Basement Only My Dog Can Get Into is officially on hold until we get whoever's stuck in there out!"

Yang shot her a look. "I thought we agreed on Operation: Crown Jewels? 'Cause of the crown emblem. And we're jewel-people."

"Half of us are jewel-people," Weiss corrected her. "Exactly half, actually."

"Guys! I'm trying to be righteous! There is justice to be done!"

"Wrongs to be righted, innocents to be saved, great." Weiss folded her arms. "But are we _sure _this is an innocent? What if this is a _Homeworld _Gem, you know, like the ones that tried to _wipe out my entire species?"_

"Is _this _any less wrong if they are?" Yang countered. "Would _you _want to be stuck in some book that's been locked away for thousands of years?"

"Of course not! I'm just as appalled as you are! But I want to _live, _too, and if whoever's in there comes out guns blazing—!"

"They're _hurt! _We don't even know if they'll be in any shape to _move, _let alone fight us!"

"Ugh! Ruby, would you _please _back me…up…here _what _are you doing?"

Ruby had stepped directly in front of the Record now that Yang was occupied staring down Weiss, opening the front cover and eyeing the back of it consideringly. There was a thin metal plate affixed to the petrified wood on the reverse of where the Gemstone was set on the outside. "I think this is where it's attached," she said, pointing. "If I can pry it off, the stone should fall right out."

"So we're just doing this?" Weiss demanded.

"Were we ever going to leave someone in trouble behind?" Ruby asked her, meeting her eyes.

Weiss shifted uncomfortably, looking away. "…No. Of course we weren't."

Ruby nodded and made a clicking noise with her tongue. "Zwei! Come here! I need my toolkit!"

"Ruby, your dog is not a _purse."_

"Nah, he's got _way _better storage capacity," Yang pointed out, grinning and punching her fists together. "Alright, jailbreak time!"

* * *

Yang couldn't help bouncing a little on the balls of her feet, anxious and impatient as Ruby dug at the metal plate with a flathead screwdriver while Weiss held the cover steady, parallel with the surface of the desk. All around the Record were strewn the contents of Zwei's floof, Ruby's organisational system apparently having gone a little out of whack since she'd first put it into place. "You sure you don't need any help?"

"We'd _ideally _like to still be able to read the Record when we're done," Weiss drawled, "so, no."

"I—_oof_—I got this, Yang," Ruby assured her, the screwdriver once again slipping out of place with a sharp scraping sound. "I've got some Gem strength too, remember? Not as weedy as I look!"

"We'd have to call you Ruby _Wild _Rose Quartz if you were—" at which Weiss yanked the tennis ball off the tip of Summer's sword and chucked it at Yang's head. The Ametrine ducked, and Zwei took off barking, cutting a wide angle around her and charging after the ball.

"Hey, that was a pretty good shot!" Yang said, a little surprised. Who knew Miss Priss Not-Quite-Heiress had a decent arm? Or decent aim, for that matter?

Weiss sniffed. "Missed my target," was all she said as she returned both hands to the Record's cover. "Sorry about that, Ruby."

"Don't _I _get an apology? I'm the one you threw stuff at."

"You deserved it."

Yang made a face; inwardly, she felt like laughing. Even before she'd warmed up to the girl, she'd known Weiss was good people—a mirror image of one of the best people Yang had ever known, in fact. On the surface, the comparison was ridiculous, but Weiss reminded her of Qrow: all prickles until you knew your way around. Irritable, temperamental, almost as nasty to the people they liked best as to the people they most despised. Pessimistic. Prone to throwing things at Yang. And of course, completely unable to be mean to Ruby for more than five minutes at a time without melting like a marshmallow.

"Oh!" Ruby exclaimed. "I think it's moving! Yang, put something down to catch the stone—I don't want them to hit the glass!"

"Uh…" Yang looked around, but didn't see anything suitable. Finally she stepped up and slipped her own open hand beneath the cover, giving a little shrug when Ruby looked up at her. "Better than nothing, right?"

On her other side, Weiss snorted, but said nothing. Ruby braced her palm against the end of the screwdriver, muscles visibly straining as she dug the tip in and levered out hard. Weiss had to lean her whole weight back to counterbalance the force. Then there was a loud _pop!_, a _clang! _as the plate went flying, a clamour of thudsand yelps as Ruby and Weiss both hit the floor, and the warm, solid weight of a Gemstone dropping into Yang's hand. She caught the cover before it could fall on the damaged stone, easing the book closed again. The round hole now in its cover perfectly framed the large, golden glyph for _Record _on the first page.

"Hey there," Yang said gently to the Gemstone cupped in her hands. "Can you hear me? You're free now."

"It's safe if you want to re-form," Ruby added, using the desk to pull herself up. "There's just three of us, and we don't have weapons out."

"Wow!" Weiss whispered harshly, glaring at Ruby as she eased herself off the floor. "Why not just say 'you could take us _easy,_ we won't fight back, we promise'?"

Ruby stuck out her tongue, prompting Weiss to roll her eyes.

"They won't be fully aware in there. Just getting the gist." She turned away from the desk, holding the cracked Gemstone out from her body. "There's room for you now," she told it. "I bet you've been planning your new form for a long time. Don't you wanna show it off?"

"Maybe they're too damaged to reform," Weiss suggested when nothing happened.

Ruby's eyes widened. "Can that happen?"

"Yeah, but it's rare," Yang said, bringing the stone closer again to inspect it. "By the time you're too banged up to form a body, you're as good as shattered anyway. There'd be pieces missing. I don't even feel a crack on the back of the stone; it's just on this side."

"So they're not in as bad of shape as we thought."

"They still need healing, though." Ruby looked up at Yang. "Maybe we should take them to Haven."

"Lionheart would call Ozpin in a heartbeat," Yang pointed out. "What're the odds Mr. Better-Safe-Than-Sorry just slaps a bubble around them and chews me out for not doing it myself?"

"You don't know he'd do that!"

_Cold amber eyes stared her down, the cliffs of the Kindergarten high around them. An armoured boot on her chest, pinning her to the ground. A painfully-tight grip on her wrist, forcing her arm straight up, her Gemstone exposed. His weapon was poised above her eye, ready to swiftly discorporate her, but that could change in an instant._

"I don't know he _wouldn't, _either!" Yang cupped her hands tighter around the Gemstone, protective. "Even _Weiss _wasn't sure about this, remember?"

"Hey! I never wanted to leave the stone in the book," Weiss insisted. "I just didn't want you two jumping to the rescue without thinking about the consequences!"

Yang opened her mouth to argue. "You—!" Then she cut herself off. Took a deep breath. "Sorry," she said finally. "I just don't like the idea of helping someone out and then locking them right back up again. If we wait for them to re-form and _then _take them to Haven, they stand a better chance of staying free."

"Which might be a bad thing, if they're holding a six-thousand-year-old grudge and decide we're enemy combatants." Weiss crossed her arms.

Ruby closed her eyes briefly, thinking. "Okay. We'll give them a little longer, see if they even _can _re-form. If they don't, we'll go to Haven and see if they can help—and Ozpin will have to go through all of us if he _does _want to be a jerk about it. Right, Weiss?"

Weiss laughed incredulously, more of a splutter or a scoff than a real laugh. "What, do you want me to threaten legal action? Because that's _literally_ the most I could do."

"Then do that! Stare him down and call your lawyer! It'll at least buy us time!"

Yang took in Ruby's determined expression, her set shoulders and stubborn mouth. Remembered a rosy-hued hand on an armoured shoulder, cold fury calmed with gentle words. That same hand reaching down and helping her off the ground, dusting her off. What Summer could order, Ruby could only ask—but maybe that would be enough. And this time, Yang's words would count for something, too.

"Okay," Yang agreed. "Hear that?" she addressed the Gemstone she held. "We've got your back if you've got ours. So I'll just set you down and when you're ready to—"

The Gemstone flashed before floating up out of Yang's grasp, a glow building from within it.

"Oh, okay." Yang blinked. "Cool."

"Ohmygosh this is so exciting!" Ruby squealed softly, waving clenched fists in the air.

"Just because I helped you do this doesn't mean I don't still have the right to say _I told you so_ if it all goes wrong!" Weiss said rapidly, shooting sharp looks at both of them before she, too, turned to watch the show.

The glow expanded from the Gemstone in all directions. White light dimmed through darkening shades of purple, then faded out entirely to reveal a feminine-looking Gem with richly-hued skin of deep violet, waves of black hair falling down her back. Her black top was cropped short, revealing the cracked Gemstone set in her navel. Fine cracks spiderwebbed a short distance over the area around the stone as well. A white coat, lined with dark lilac, covered most of the rest of her upper body, and Yang couldn't suppress a grin. Maybe her days as the lone oasis of Gem style between Ozpin's boring suit and Qrow's floordrobe-chic were over.

As soon as the new Gem's _very nice _thigh-high boots hit the ground, though, she stumbled, tipping forward as her eyes flew open, wide and alarmed. Ruby and Weiss both reached out, but Yang was closer—and faster. She caught the Gem by her upper arms, steadying her. "Hey. You okay?"

The Gem tipped her head back to look at Yang, her expression wary. Unlike the dark tones of the rest of her body and most of her wardrobe, her eyes were a brilliant golden yellow, gleaming with the same chatoyancy as her Gemstone. Yang had half-expected the same elongated cat's-eye effect, too, but the violet Gem's pupils were rounded like her own, and the whites of her eyes were still, well, white. And she had plenty of time to look, because the Gem neither spoke nor moved, not even to shrug Yang's hands away. She just maintained that distrustful stare. The large bow on top of her head should have diminished its impact, but somehow didn't.

"Soooo," Yang drawled at length, raising her eyebrows. "Come here often?"

"Yang, _no!"_ Ruby protested from behind her, almost drowning out Weiss's groan of "Oh my _gods."_

"No," the Gem said flatly. "I don't leave often, either."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess you…wouldn't. With the whole…"

"The whole imprisonment thing," the other Gem finished dryly.

"Yup. Yeah." Yang cleared her throat awkwardly. "That."

A particularly pointy elbow jabbed her in the ribs, snapping Yang out of it. She released the Gem and took a step back as Weiss took over. "Sorry about that, she's…Yang. We're working on it."

"Hey," Yang objected. Ruby patted her on the arm consolingly.

The new Gem looked Weiss up and down, brow wrinkling into a frown. "Where is your Gemstone?"

Weiss frowned right back. "I'm human," she said. "Didn't you know that already? The Record said—"

"The _Record _isn't _me," _the Gem said with no small amount of venom, taking Weiss off-guard if the way she stepped back was anything to go by. "You aren't the ones who discorporated me," she said, glancing at Yang and Ruby. "Who are you? Rebels? Is that why you're with an organic?"

"A _human," _Weiss specified, rather testily, "and I have a name. It's Weiss."

"_Names," _the Gem spat, backing away. "You _are _with the Rebellion!" Her eyes darted around. "This is your base, isn't it!? Beacon—that _Agate—!"_

Her gaze locked on Ruby. "That cloak! You're an _officer!"_

"No! I'm really not!" Ruby held up her hands placatingly. "Please listen to us—we let you go!"

The Gem scoffed. "After locking me up in the first place!"

"That wasn't us!" Weiss insisted. "Ruby and I didn't even _exist _when you were locked away!"

"Neither did I, if it was back in the war," Yang said. "Hey, just calm down. None of us want to hurt you. We just want to talk this out, okay? Hey—what's your designation? Mine's—" She caught herself. "Ametrine. I don't know my ID code. Sorry."

The Gem looked her over. "Off-colour," she said, her voice softening just slightly. A strange bitterness underlaid her words. "They probably stripped your record. I'm surprised you weren't shattered on emergence."

"Just lucky, I guess," Yang said blithely, flashing a grin as she swallowed the instinctive dread. It had been centuries before she'd learned Homeworld's policy on Gems like her. She'd never met a Remnan Gem who cared that she hadn't come out factory-default, but it was still a heavy thing to think about.

"Scapolite," the new Gem said abruptly. "Black Scapolite, Facet 3, Cut 7RB."

"Scapolite," Yang repeated, letting her grin soften into a genuine smile. "I've never met a Scapolite before."

"If you're telling me the Rebellion won the war, I'm not surprised," Scapolite said, sounding subdued; Yang wouldn't say she was _relaxed, _exactly, but she was winding back from the high alert she'd been at earlier. "How long has it been?"

"More than five thousand years," Ruby said quietly. Scapolite closed her eyes.

"How could this happen?" she murmured, as if to herself.

"It was before my time," Yang admitted. "No one really talks about it, since most of the Gems on Remnant were around to see it, but somehow we chased off Homeworld's forces, got them to leave us alone." She was pretty sure that was how it had happened, anyway. She'd emerged more than a millennium after the war's end; no one had been eager to talk about the aftermath of the battle in Forever Fall, and as it hadn't mattered, she hadn't pressed. The bad guys were gone, and Remnant was safe. Why pick at old wounds just for the sake of a few fine details?

"The Diamond Authority just _left _a viable colony world?" Disbelief was clear on Scapolite's face. "Without even shattering the Last Rose?"

"Rose…Quartz?" Yang's gaze darted towards Ruby. "The Rebel leader?"

Scapolite nodded.

"She's…" Ruby began, swallowing hard. "She's gone too. _I'm _the last Rose Quartz on Remnant now. Sort of, anyway. That's why I have this cloak."

Scapolite immediately focused in on Ruby, frowning. "Your colouring's wrong. Too red. Not red _enough _to be _her."_

"I'm only part Gem," Ruby explained. "I'm, uh, part organic. Human. My name's Ruby?" She smiled awkwardly.

There was a long pause.

"I didn't understand any of that," Scapolite announced.

"Yeah, that's fair," Ruby mumbled, looking down. "Listen, Scapolite, we're not…_really_ part of the Rebellion, but the Rebellion _did _win the Gem War. This world—we call it Remnant, and Gems and organics live here together. We don't have a caste system. We just _live._ It's peaceful and it's safe. Mostly safe. I guess nowhere's _completely _safe, but—that's not the point."

"Nothing you're saying makes any sense." Scapolite shook her head emphatically. "First you claim to be some impossible hybrid lifeform, and now you're telling me this _chaos _you're describing is _peaceful?_ And even you can't pretend it's really safe! I don't—"

Zwei barked suddenly from beside her and Scapolite _screamed, _the sound cutting off quickly as she leapt back, away from the source of the noise. She stared down at Zwei, frozen, as the corgi wiggled his stubby tail and nosed the tennis ball towards her. Scapolite squeaked and backed up a few steps more to prevent the ball from hitting the toe of her boot.

"_What is that?"_ she demanded, high-pitched and strangled.

"That's Zwei," Ruby said hurriedly, rushing forward and scooping him up. "He's a dog. Just a normal Remnant animal! Ignore the pink!"

Immediately, Weiss pointed at her. _"Aha! _You _admitted _he's pink! No take-backs!" Then she went pink herself, lowering her arm. "Uh. Not that…that matters."

Scapolite looked back and forth between them, shaking slightly, clearly overwhelmed.

"Guys, maybe take it down a notch?" Yang suggested, then grimaced. "Wow, that felt _so _wrong coming out of my mouth. I'm sorry, Scapolite, I know this has gotta be—"

"Just!" Scapolite held up her hands, forestalling anything further. "Just let me think. Please. If you really want to help me, just let me _think."_

"Okay," Ruby said before Yang could object, setting Zwei down and shooing him towards the doorway. "Okay. We'll just be over by the door, okay? Let us know when you're ready to talk. Take your time."

Scapolite didn't reply. Ruby took Yang by the arm and steered her around to face Weiss. A hand on the human girl's back ensured Ruby could march them both across the room towards the doorway, where Zwei was already sitting and watching them. It wasn't much space, but short of leaving Scapolite alone in the office, it was the best they could do.

"She does _not _sound like a fan of your family's politics," Weiss said bluntly, speaking low to avoid being overheard. "Which, last I checked, means she's not a fan of the fact that there's anything but Gems alive anywhere on the entire planet!"

"She's one Gem," Ruby said. "Even if she felt _that _strongly about it—and I don't think she does—what could she do? Not every Gem on Remnant was with the Rebellion, but that doesn't mean they were happy with Homeworld, either. Or the _'Diamond Authority'?"_

"Homeworld's rulers," Yang explained, and Ruby nodded understanding.

"Thought so."

"So we're counting on the fact that she's outnumbered?" Weiss didn't look too happy with that. "What are we even hoping will happen here?"

"We want to get her to Haven so she can be healed," Ruby said, counting points off on her fingers. "We want to show her that she doesn't have to be scared of Remnant just because she doesn't understand how it works, and we want her to find somewhere she can be happy."

"We've really only got a handle on Step One," Yang realised, disheartened.

"I'm kind of hoping the other steps just work out from there, actually," Ruby admitted. "Or at least buy us some time to think."

"Something we could all use," Weiss sighed, glancing over Yang's shoulder towards Scapolite. "—_Aaaand_ she's gone."

"What?" But Yang was already turning. The Record had vanished off Glynda's desk. Scapolite had vanished from in front of it. And the window was wide open.

* * *

_**A/N: Today you have all learned a valuable lesson about trusting me when I say anything that isn't at least 80% self-deprecation but hey who cares because Our Lady of Ninja Catgirls the great and magnificent Blake is here in all her sullen glory! Felt so good to be able to add her to the character tags. Like finding the last edge piece in a jigsaw puzzle.**_

_**I'm also really proud of myself for coming up with the Record? I mean, the Blake-book connection is obvious, but that isn't actually the main reason. Hint: location is a big clue. Points to anyone who knows what I was getting at! I mean, I'll explain in the notes for next chapter anyway because I have a terrible compulsion to explain my process regardless of whether anyone actually cares, but y'know.**_

_**So yeah apparently next time is gonna kinda-sorta be Ocean Gem then. I'm maybe halfway through its climactic fight scene? So far so good but I can feel it creeping longer an and like. Yeah. See you then! Thanks for reading!**_


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